Alkali Silicate Vehicle Forms Durable, Fireproof Paint

The problem: To develop a paint for use on satellites or space vehicles that exhibits high resistance to cracking, peeling, or flaking when subjected to a wide range of temperatures. Organic coatings will partially meet the required specifications but have the inherent disadvantage of combustibility. Alkali-silicate binders, used in some industrial coatings and adhesives, show evidence of forming a fireproof paint, but the problem of high surface-tension, a characteristic of alkali silicates, has not been resolved. The solution: Use of a suitable non-ionic wetting agent combined with a paint incorporating alkali silicate as the binder

Antarctic Meteorite Location Map Series

Antarctica has been a prolific source of meteorites since meteorite concentrations were discovered in 1969. The Antarctic Search For Meteorites (ANSMET) project has been active over much of the Trans-Antarctic Mountain Range. The first ANSMET expedition (a joint U.S.-Japanese effort) discovered what turned out to be a significant concentration of meteorites at the Allan Hills in Victoria Land. Later reconnaissance in this region resulted in the discovery of meteorite concentrations on icefields to the west of the Allan Hills, at Reckling Moraine, and Elephant Moraine. Antarctic meteorite location maps (reduced versions) of the Allan Hills main, near western, middle western, and far western icefields and the Elephant Moraine icefield are presented. Other Antarctic meteorite location maps for the specimens found by the ANSMET project are being prepared

Investigation of dust bands from blue ice fields in the Lewis Cliff (Beardmore) area, Antarctica: A progress report

Blue ice fields in Antarctica are well known for their high areal meteorite concentrations. The exact type of accumulation model and the age of the ice is still not well known. Dust bands on blue ice fields may help to clarify some of these problems. Dust, which has been isolated from dust band samples from blue ice areas in the Lewis Cliff/Walcott Neve area (Beardmore region), Antarctica, was studied to determine petrographic characteristics and chemical compositions. One sample has an average grain size of around 0.5mm, and is rather different from the others in its abundances of trace elements. The REE pattern and some other trace element ratios of that sample suggest it is a sediment from the local Beacon Supergroup, which has been scooped up from the ground by ice movement. The other five samples which were investigated have very small grain sizes (20μm), and abundant glass shards. Major element data on the glass shards (and some feldspar crystals, which are also present in the dust band samples) allow the conclusion that they have originated from an alkaline volcano. The chemical composition of the glasses is highly variable, some showing basanitic composition, some showing trachytic or peralkaline K-trachytic composition. The silica vs. sum of alkalis plot shows that the Lewis Cliff samples are different from dust collected at the Allan Hills, but that there is a close similarity with volcanic material from The Pleiades, Northern Victoria Land. The trace element chemistry of all volcanic samples show the characteristic volcanic trace elements, like Ta, W, Sb, Th, and the REE, enriched by a considerable factor. The REE patterns exhibit a prominent negative Eu anomaly, which may be explained by mixing basanites (no Eu anomaly, but steep REE patterns) with K-trachytes and peralkaline K-trachytes (very pronounced negative Eu anomaly). The same components are obvious in major element analyses of individual glass shards, thus each dust band is a mixture of at least three different source materials (which, however, originated from the same volcano in a single eruption). The Pleiades seem to be a likely source for the volcanic debris found in the dust bands at Lewis Cliff

Movement Analytics: Current Status, Application to Manufacturing, and Future Prospects from an AI Perspective

Data-driven decision making is becoming an integral part of manufacturing companies. Data is collected and commonly used to improve efficiency and produce high quality items for the customers. IoT-based and other forms of object tracking are an emerging tool for collecting movement data of objects/entities (e.g. human workers, moving vehicles, trolleys etc.) over space and time. Movement data can provide valuable insights like process bottlenecks, resource utilization, effective working time etc. that can be used for decision making and improving efficiency. Turning movement data into valuable information for industrial management and decision making requires analysis methods. We refer to this process as movement analytics. The purpose of this document is to review the current state of work for movement analytics both in manufacturing and more broadly. We survey relevant work from both a theoretical perspective and an application perspective. From the theoretical perspective, we put an emphasis on useful methods from two research areas: machine learning, and logic-based knowledge representation. We also review their combinations in view of movement analytics, and we discuss promising areas for future development and application. Furthermore, we touch on constraint optimization. From an application perspective, we review applications of these methods to movement analytics in a general sense and across various industries. We also describe currently available commercial off-the-shelf products for tracking in manufacturing, and we overview main concepts of digital twins and their applications

TU Sat 1—An Innovative Low-Cost Communications Satellite

Taylor University (TU), an undergraduate liberal arts university, is developing a communication Cube- Sat. TU Sat 1 incorporates powerful microelectronics, a gravity gradient boom, and a low-cost email communications system capable of operating at a 115-kbps rate near 0.9 GHz. The goal is to demonstrate low cost communication for remote villages in third world countries. TU Sat 1 also includes a magnetometer and Langmuir probe to measure plasma density and temperature at an altitude of 650 km. Furthermore, TU Sat 1 provides students with the needed experience and skills to be on the leading edge of innovation

Evaluation of Brahmans and tropically adapted crossbreds and composites for economically important beef cattle traits

This thesis compared straightbred Brahmans to tropically adapted composites for carcass quality, objective and sensory meat quality, feed efficiency, feeding behaviour and reproductive performance under tropical and subtropical conditions in northern Australian using typical commercial beef production practices. Straightbred Brahmans had carcasses up to 160% lighter than Continental (Charolais, Limousin) and British (Angus, Hereford, Shorthonl) sired crosses by Brahman dams (P 46.5). All measures of instron compression were below 2.2 kg indicating connective tissue toughness was not important in these animals slaughtered by an average of 24 months of age. There was little evidence of breed x finish and breed x market interactions

Metabolic compensation activates pro-survival mTORC1 signaling upon 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase inhibition in osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most common pediatric and adult primary malignant bone cancer. Curative regimens target the folate pathway, downstream of serine metabolism, with high-dose methotrexate. Here, the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of serine from glucose, 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH), is examined, and an inverse correlation between PHGDH expression and relapse-free and overall survival in osteosarcoma patients is found. PHGDH inhibition in osteosarcoma cell lines attenuated cellular proliferation without causing cell death, prompting a robust metabolic analysis to characterize pro-survival compensation. Using metabolomic and lipidomic profiling, cellular response to PHGDH inhibition is identified as accumulation of unsaturated lipids, branched chain amino acids, and methionine cycle intermediates, leading to activation of pro-survival mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling. Increased mTORC1 activation sensitizes cells to mTORC1 pathway inhibition, resulting in significant, synergistic cell death in vitro and in vivo. Identifying a therapeutic combination for PHGDH-high cancers offers preclinical justification for a dual metabolism-based combination therapy for osteosarcoma