Orion EFT-1 Catalytic Tile Experiment Overview and Flight Measurements

This paper describes the design and results of a surface catalysis flight experiment flown on the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle during Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT1). Similar to previous Space Shuttle catalytic tile experiments, the present test consisted of a highly catalytic coating applied to an instrumented TPS tile. However, the present catalytic tile experiment contained significantly more instrumentation in order to better resolve the heating overshoot caused by the change in surface catalytic efficiency at the interface between two distinct materials. In addition to collecting data with unprecedented spatial resolution of the "overshoot" phenomenon, the experiment was also designed to prove if such a catalytic overshoot would be seen in turbulent flow in high enthalpy regimes. A detailed discussion of the results obtained during EFT1 is presented, as well as the challenges associated with data interpretation of this experiment. Results of material testing carried out in support of this flight experiment are also shown. Finally, an inverse heat conduction technique is employed to reconstruct the flight environments at locations upstream and along the catalytic coating. The data and analysis presented in this work will greatly contribute to our understanding of the catalytic "overshoot" phenomenon, and have a significant impact on the design of future spacecraft

Prevention of bone mineral changes induced by bed rest: Modification by static compression simulating weight bearing, combined supplementation of oral calcium and phosphate, calcitonin injections, oscillating compression, the oral diophosphonatedisodium etidronate, and lower body negative pressure

The phenomenon of calcium loss during bed rest was found to be analogous to the loss of bone material which occurs in the hypogravic environment of space flight. Ways of preventing this occurrence are investigated. A group of healthy adult males underwent 24-30 weeks of continuous bed rest. Some of them were given an exercise program designed to resemble normal ambulatory activity; another subgroup was fed supplemental potassium phosphate. The results from a 12-week period of treatment were compared with those untreated bed rest periods. The potassium phosphate supplements prevented the hypercalciuria of bed rest, but fecal calcium tended to increase. The exercise program did not diminish the negative calcium balance. Neither treatment affected the heavy loss of mineral from the calcaneus. Several additional studies are developed to examine the problem further

Effects of potential detoxifying agents on growth performance and deoxynivalenol (DON) urinary balance characteristics of nursery pigs fed DON-contaminated wheat

Citation: Frobose, H. L., Stephenson, E. W., Tokach, M. D., DeRouchey, J. M., Woodworth, J. C., Dritz, S. S., & Goodband, R. D. (2017). Effects of potential detoxifying agents on growth performance and deoxynivalenol (DON) urinary balance characteristics of nursery pigs fed DON-contaminated wheat. Journal of Animal Science, 95(1), 327-337. doi:10.2527/jas2016.0664Two experiments were conducted to evaluate potential detoxifying agents on growth of nursery pigs fed deoxynivalenol (DON)-contaminated diets. Naturally DON-contaminated wheat (6 mg/kg) was used to achieve desired DON levels. In a 21-d study, 238 pigs (13.4 +/- 1.8 kg BW) were used in a completely randomized design with a 2 x 2 + 1 factorial arrangement. Diets were: 1) Positive control (PC; < 0.5 mg/kg DON), 2) PC + 1.0% Product V (Nutriquest LLC, Mason City, IA), 3) Negative control (NC; 4.0 mg/kg DON), 4) NC + 1.0% Product V, and 5) NC + 1.0% sodium metabisulfite (SMB; Samirian Chemicals, Campbell, CA). There were 6 or 7 replicate pens/treatment and 7 pigs/pen. Analyzed DON was decreased by 92% when pelleted with SMB, but otherwise matched formulated levels. Overall, a DON x Product V interaction was observed for ADG (P < 0.05) with a tendency for an interaction for ADFI (P < 0.10). As anticipated, DON reduced (P < 0.001) ADG and ADFI, but the interaction was driven by even poorer growth when Product V was added to NC diets. Pigs fed NC diets had 10% poorer G: F (P < 0.001) than PC-fed pigs. Reductions in ADG due to DON were most distinct (50%) during the initial period. Adding SMB to NC diets improved (P < 0.01) ADG, ADFI, and G: F, and improved (P < 0.02) ADG and G: F compared to the PC diet. A urinary balance study was conducted using diets 3 to 5 from Exp. 1 to evaluate Product V and SMB on DON urinary metabolism. A 10 d adaptation was followed by a 7 d collection using 24 barrows in a randomized complete block design. Pigs fed NC + SMB diet had greater urinary DON output (P < 0.05) than pigs fed NC + Product V, with NC pigs intermediate. Daily DON excretion was lowest (P < 0.05) in the NC + SMB pigs. However, degradation of DON-sulfonate back to the parent DON molecule was observed as pigs fed NC + SMB excreted more DON than they consumed (164% of daily DON intake), greater (P < 0.001) than pigs fed the NC (59%) or NC + Product V (48%). Overall, Product V did not alleviate DON effects on growth nor did it reduce DON absorption and excretion. However, hydrothermally processing DON-contaminated diets with 1.0% SMB restored ADFI and improved G: F. Even so, the urinary balance experiment revealed that some of the converted DON-sulfonate can degrade back to DON under physiological conditions. While further research is needed to discern the stability of the DON-sulfonate, SMB appears promising to restore performance in pelleted DON-contaminated diets

Effects of PepSoyGen processing method on nursery pig growth performance

Swine Industry Day, 2014 is known as Swine Day, 2014A total of 292 weanling pigs (PIC 327 × 1050; 13.3 ± 2.4 lb BW and 21 d of age) were used in a 31-d experiment evaluating the effects of alternative PepSoyGen processing methods for nursery pig diets. There were 11 replicate pens per treatment and 6 or 7 pigs per pen. At weaning, pigs were allotted to pens by initial weight to 1 of 4 treatments in a completely randomized design. A 3-phase diet series was used with treatment diets fed during Phase 1 (d 0 to 7) and Phase 2 (d 7 to 21), with a common diet fed from d 21 to 31. Diets were: (1) negative control (corn, soybean meal, and dried whey), (2) positive control (4% DPS 50 + 1% PepSoyGen), (3) PepSoyGen processing method 1 (PSG1; 5%), and (4) PepSoyGen processing method 2 (PSG2; 5%). The alternative PepSoyGen processing methods incorporated increasing levels of a proprietary additive post-fermentation (PSG2 > PSG1) aimed at further breakdown of anti-nutritional factors associated with soybean meal. Nutrient analyses generally matched formulated levels for negative and positive control diets, but for both PSG1 and PSG2, CP and amino acid concentrations were lower than formulated, with PSG1 generally 10% lower than PSG2. In Phase 1, pigs fed the positive control diet had improved (P < 0.01) ADG and feed efficiency compared with pigs fed the negative control, whereas pigs fed PSG1 and PSG2 diets were intermediate for feed efficiency but tended (P < 0.07) to have increased ADG compared with those fed the negative control. For Phase 2, there were no significant differences in growth performance between treatment diets. For the overall experimental period (d 0 to 21), pigs fed the positive control diet and PSG2 diet had improved ADG (P < 0.05), whereas pigs fed the positive control, PSG1, and PSG2 diets had improved feed efficiency (P < 0.05) compared with pigs fed the negative control diet. Also, pigs fed PSG1 tended (P < 0.06) to have lower ADG compared with pigs fed the positive control diet. During the Phase 3 common period, no difference in growth performance was observed. Overall (d 0 to 31), ADG was greater (P < 0.01) for pigs fed the positive control diet and tended to be greater (P < 0.07) for pigs fed diets containing PSG2 than the negative control diet, with pigs fed PSG1 intermediate. In conclusion, pigs fed the PSG1 or PSG2 diets had similar performance to pigs fed the positive control diet. Numerically, the PSG2 diet elicited greater performance than the PSG1 diet, but it is unclear whether this response is reflective of the reduced CP and amino acid content in the PSG1 diet or if the differences in processing method affected growth response

The progression of deoxynivalenol-induced growth suppression in nursery pigs and the potential of an algae-modified montmorillonite clay to mitigate these effects

Citation: Frobose, H. L., Erceg, J. A., Fowler, S. Q., Tokach, M. D., DeRouchey, J. M., Woodworth, J. C., . . . Goodband, R. D. (2016). The progression of deoxynivalenol-induced growth suppression in nursery pigs and the potential of an algae-modified montmorillonite clay to mitigate these effects. Journal of Animal Science, 94(9), 3746-3759. doi:10.2527/jas2016-0663Two experiments were conducted to characterize the progression of deoxynivalenol (DON)-induced growth suppression and to investigate algae-modified montmorillonite clay (AMMC) as a means to alleviate the effects of DON in nursery pigs. In both experiments, naturally DON-contaminated wheat was used to produce diets with desired DON levels. In Exp. 1, 280 barrows and gilts (10.0 +/- 0.2 kg BW) were used in a 28-d experiment arranged in a 2 x 2 + 1 factorial design with 8 replicates per treatment. The 5 treatments consisted of 2 positive control (PC) diets with DON below detection limits and with or without 0 or 0.50% AMMC and 3 negative control (NC) diets with 5 mg/kg of DON and containing 0, 0.25, or 0.50% AMMC. No DON x AMMC interactions were observed. Overall, pigs fed DON had decreased (P < 0.001) ADG and final BW regardless of AMMC addition. Feeding DON-contaminated diets elicited the most severe depression (P < 0.001) in ADFI and G:F from d 0 to 3, remaining poorer overall (P < 0.01) but lessening in severity as exposure time increased. Pigs fed DON diets had greater (P < 0.05) within pen BW variation (CV) on d 28. Although the addition of 0.50% AMMC to diets restored (P < 0.05) ADFI from d 14 to 21 to levels similar to the PC, no other differences were observed for AMMC inclusion. In Exp. 2, 360 barrows (11.4 +/- 0.2 kg BW) were used in a 21-d experiment with 9 dietary treatments arranged in a 3 x 3 factorial design with DON and AMMC inclusion as main effects. There were 8 replicate pens per treatment. Treatments consisted of 3 PC diets without DON, 3 low-DON (1.5 mg/kg DON) NC diets, and 3 high-DON (3 mg/kg DON) NC diets with 0, 0.17, or 0.50% AMMC incorporated at each DON level. No DON x AMMC interactions were observed. As DON level increased, ADG and final BW decreased (quadratic, P < 0.05), driven by decreased (quadratic, P < 0.01) ADFI and poorer (quadratic; P < 0.05) G:F. At both 1.5 and 3 mg/kg DON, reductions in ADG were most marked from d 0 to 7 (15 to 22% lower) and were least distinct from d 14 to 21 (5 to 6% lower). Incorporating AMMC at increasing levels had no effect on ADG, ADFI, G:F, or final BW. Overall, these experiments reinforce DON effects on feed intake but also indicate that the effects of DON on G: F may be more severe than previously thought. Furthermore, some pigs appear to develop tolerance to DON, as effects on ADFI and G: F lessen over time. However, the addition of AMMC did not offset the deleterious effects of DON

Healthy-lifestyle behaviors associated with overweight and obesity in US rural children

BackgroundThere are disproportionately higher rates of overweight and obesity in poor rural communities but studies exploring children&rsquo;s health-related behaviors that may assist in designing effective interventions are limited. We examined the association between overweight and obesity prevalence of 401 ethnically/racially diverse, rural school-aged children and healthy-lifestyle behaviors: improving diet quality, obtaining adequate sleep, limiting screen-time viewing, and consulting a physician about a child&rsquo;s weight.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was conducted on a sample of school-aged children (6&ndash;11 years) in rural regions of California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Carolina participating in CHANGE (Creating Healthy, Active, and Nurturing Growing-up Environments) Program, created by Save the Children, an independent organization that works with communities to improve overall child health, with the objective to reduce unhealthy weight gain in these school-aged children (grades 1&ndash;6) in rural America. After measuring children&rsquo;s height and weight, we17 assessed overweight and obesity (BMI &ge; 85th percentile) associations with these behaviors: improving diet quality18 (&ge; 2 servings of fruits and vegetables/day), reducing whole milk, sweetened beverage consumption/day; obtaining19 adequate night-time sleep on weekdays (&ge; 10 hours/night); limiting screen-time (i.e., television, video, computer,20 videogame) viewing on weekdays (&le; 2 hours/day); and consulting a physician about weight. Analyses were adjusted 21 for state of residence, children\u27s race/ethnicity, gender, age, and government assistance.ResultsOverweight or obesity prevalence was 37 percent in Mississippi and nearly 60 percent in Kentucky. Adjusting for covariates, obese children were twice as likely to eat &ge; 2 servings of vegetables per day (OR=2.0,95% CI 1.1-3.4), less likely to consume whole milk (OR=0.4,95% CI 0.2-0.70), Their parents are more likely to be told by their doctor that their child was obese (OR=108.0,95% CI 21.9-541.6), and less likely to report talking to their child about fruits and vegetables a lot/sometimes vs. not very much/never (OR=0.4, 95%CI 0.2-0.98) compared to the parents of healthy-weight children.ConclusionsRural children are not meeting recommendations to improve diet, reduce screen time and obtain adequate sleep. Although we expected obese children to be more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors, we found the opposite to be true. It is possible that these groups of respondent parents were highly aware of their weight status and have been advised to change their children&rsquo;s health behaviors. Perhaps given the opportunity to participate in an intervention study in combination with a physician recommendation could have resulted in actual behavior change

New Measurements of Fine-Scale CMB Polarization Power Spectra from CAPMAP at Both 40 and 90 GHz

We present new measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization from the final season of the Cosmic Anisotropy Polarization MAPper (CAPMAP). The data set was obtained in winter 2004-2005 with the 7 m antenna in Crawford Hill, New Jersey, from 12 W-band (84-100 GHz) and 4 Q-band (36-45 GHz) correlation polarimeters with 3.3' and 6.5' beamsizes, respectively. After selection criteria were applied, 956 (939) hours of data survived for analysis of W-band (Q-band) data. Two independent and complementary pipelines produced results in excellent agreement with each other. A broad suite of null tests as well as extensive simulations showed that systematic errors were minimal, and a comparison of the W-band and Q-band sky maps revealed no contamination from galactic foregrounds. We report the E-mode and B-mode power spectra in 7 bands in the range 200 < l < 3000, extending the range of previous measurements to higher l. The E-mode spectrum, which is detected at 11 sigma significance, is in agreement with cosmological predictions and with previous work at other frequencies and angular resolutions. The BB power spectrum provides one of the best limits to date on B-mode power at 4.8 uK^2 (95% confidence).Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Ap

Analysis of Alfven Eigenmode destabilization in DIII-D high poloidal β\beta discharges using a Landau closure model

Alfven Eigenmodes are destabilized at the DIII-D pedestal during transient beta drops in high poloidal beta discharges with internal transport barriers (ITBs), driven by n=1 external kink modes, leading to energetic particle losses. There are two different scenarios in the thermal beta recovery phase: with bifurcation (two instability branches with different frequencies) or without bifurcation (single instability branch). We use the reduced MHD equations in a full 3D system, coupled with equations of density and parallel velocity moments for the energetic particles as well as the geodesic acoustic wave dynamics, to study the properties of the instabilities observed in the DIII-D high poloidal beta discharges and identify the conditions to trigger the bifurcation. The simulations suggest that instabilities with lower frequency in the bifurcation case are ballooning modes driven at the plasma pedestal, while the instability branch with higher frequencies are low n (n<4) Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes nearby the pedestal. The reverse shear region between the middle and plasma periphery in the non-bifurcated case avoids the excitation of ballooning modes at the pedestal, although Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes and Reverse Shear Alfven Eigenmodes are unstable in the reverse shear region. The n=1 and n=2 Alfven Eigenmode activity can be suppressed or minimized if the neutral beam injector (NBI) intensity is lower than the experimental value (betaf < 0.03). In addition, if the beam energy or neutral beam injector voltage is lower than in the experiment (Vth,f / VA0 < 0.2), the resonance between beam and thermal plasma is weaker. The n=3,4,5 and 6 AE activity can't be fully suppressed, although the growth rate and frequency is smaller for an optimized neutral beam injector operation regime. In conclusion, AE activity in high poloidal beta discharges can be minimized for optimized NBI operation regimes

Effect of atomic layer deposition on the quality factor of silicon nanobeam cavities

In this work we study the effect of thin-film deposition on the quality factor (Q) of silicon nanobeam cavities. We observe an average increase in the Q of 38±31% in one sample and investigate the dependence of this increase on the initial nanobeam hole sizes. We note that this process can be used to modify cavities that have larger than optimal hole sizes following fabrication. Additionally, the technique allows the tuning of the cavity mode wavelength and the incorporation of new materials, without significantly degrading Q