77 FR 41707 - United States Standards for Grades of Almonds in the Shell

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-16

... inspections, which are voluntary, on approximately 75% of all of the almonds going from the handlers to... Determination of Grade. In grading the inspection sample, the percentage of loose hulls, pieces of shell, chaff...

78 FR 14907 - United States Standards for Grades of Almonds in the Shell

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-08

... inspections, which are voluntary, on approximately 75 percent of all of the almonds going from the handlers to... inspection sample, the percentage of loose hulls, pieces of shell, chaff and foreign material is determined...

Pedagogy Journal, 1998.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marashio, Paul, Ed.

1998-01-01

This annual serial volume contains 13 articles offering practical pedagogical ideas from faculty at New Hampshire Technical Colleges. After a brief preface, the following articles are presented: (1) "Variety Is the Spice of Learning," by Sandra Cole; (2) "Separating the Wheat from the Chaff at the Annual Conference," by Diana…

7 CFR 319.69 - Notice of quarantine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... chaff; from all countries. (2) Corn and allied plants (maize, sorghum, broomcorn, Sudan grass, napier grass, jobs-tears, teosinte, Polytoca, Sclerachne, Chionachne); all parts, from all countries except... listed in § 319.59-2 of this part. (2) Corn and allied plants (maize, sorghum, broomcorn, Sudan grass...

7 CFR 319.69 - Notice of quarantine.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... chaff; from all countries. (2) Corn and allied plants (maize, sorghum, broomcorn, Sudan grass, napier grass, jobs-tears, teosinte, Polytoca, Sclerachne, Chionachne); all parts, from all countries except... listed in § 319.59-2 of this part. (2) Corn and allied plants (maize, sorghum, broomcorn, Sudan grass...

40 CFR 62.14840 - What definitions must I know?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... primary chamber. Solid waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid... vegetative agricultural materials such as nut and grain hulls and chaff (e.g., almond, walnut, peanut, rice...

40 CFR 62.14840 - What definitions must I know?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... primary chamber. Solid waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid... vegetative agricultural materials such as nut and grain hulls and chaff (e.g., almond, walnut, peanut, rice...

40 CFR 62.14840 - What definitions must I know?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... primary chamber. Solid waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid... vegetative agricultural materials such as nut and grain hulls and chaff (e.g., almond, walnut, peanut, rice...

Speaking Loudly for Good Books: Promoting the Wheat and Winnowing the Chaff.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nilsen, Alleen Pace

1991-01-01

Discusses and comments on the process of reviewing books for children and adolescents. Mergers within the publishing industry are discussed; the proliferation of books in series is described; problems with stereotyping are considered; various book lists are described; the production of paperback originals is discussed; and the role of reviewers is…

Data Mining Gets Traction in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Sarah D.

2011-01-01

The new and rapidly growing field of educational data mining is using the chaff from data collected through normal school activities to explore learning in more detail than ever, and researchers say the day when educators can make use of Amazon.com-like feedback on student learning behaviors may be closer than most people think. Educational data…

'Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff': Investigating Overload in Educational Discussion Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kear, Karen; Heap, N.W.

2007-01-01

This paper reports on research to investigate design features of asynchronous discussion systems for higher education. The research aims to identify features that increase the benefits of discussion systems and reduce the problems. The paper focuses on a major theme that emerged from interviews with learners and teachers: information overload.…

Intercomparisons of sumultaneous remote and in situ wind measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gonzales, N.; Hauchecorne, A.; Kirkwood, S.; Lubken, F.-J.; Manson, A. H.; Mourier, A.; Schmidlin, F. J.; Schminder, R.; Kurschner, D.; Singer, W.

1994-01-01

A large number of ground based, balloon and rocket borne experiments was performed at various stations during DYnamics Adapted Network for the Atmosphere (DYANA). This allows the comparisons of simultaneous wind profiles determined by different techniques. This paper briefly describes each technique and discusses the comparisons between: (1) foil chaff at Andoya (69 deg N, 16 deg E) and EISCAT winds data at Tromso (70 deg N, 19 deg E); (2) foil chaff or falling sphere at Andoya and MF radar winds data at Tromso; (3) MF radar at Juliusruh (54 deg N, 13 deg E), meteorological radar at Kuehlungsborn (54 deg N, 11 deg E), meteorological rockets at Zingst (54 deg N, 12.5 deg E) and LF drift winds at Collm (51.3 deg N, 13 deg E); (4) falling sphere, balloons and, for the first time, a Rayleigh Doppler Lidar at the Centre d'Essais des Landes (C.E.L. 44 deg N, 1 deg W). These methods have widely varying altitude, spatial and temporal resolutions. Despite these differences, the comparisons show a generally good agreement.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: The Role of Vocational Education in Economic Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grubb, W. Norton; Stern, David

This paper states that, although education has been linked historically to economic development, there is no clear evidence that this link is valid. It investigates under what conditions educational programs are likely to be effective and which are likely to shift resources without any net effects on employment, wage levels, productivity, or…

Separating Wheat from Chaff: How Secondary School Principals' Core Values and Beliefs Influence Decision-Making Related to Mandates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsen, Donald E.; Hunter, Joseph E.

2014-01-01

Research conducted by Larsen and Hunter (2013, February) identified a clear pattern in secondary school principals' decision-making related to mandated change: more than half of participants' decisions were based on core values and beliefs, requiring value judgments. Analysis of themes revealed that more than half of administrative decisions…

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Identifying Key Elements in the NLA .AU Domain Harvest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fellows, Geoff; Harvey, Ross; Lloyd, Annemaree; Pymm, Bob; Wallis, Jake

2008-01-01

In 2005 and 2006 the National Library of Australia (NLA) carried out two whole-domain web harvests which complement the selective web archiving approach taken by PANDORA. Web harvests of this size pose significant challenges to their use. Despite these challenges, such harvests present fascinating research opportunities. The NLA has provided…

Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff: What Makes for Good Evidence of Effectiveness in the Literature in Gifted Education?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callahan, Carolyn M.; Moon, Tonya R.

2007-01-01

To provide an overview of the specific components that must be considered when making decisions about research in the field of gifted education, the authors describe and evaluate the three types of evidence--speculative or anecdotal, theoretical, and empirical--commonly offered in the literature of the field. Empirical, or evidence-based, research…

Separating the Chaff from the Oats: Evidence for a Conceptual Distinction between Count Noun and Mass Noun Aggregates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Middleton, Erica L.; Wisniewski, Edward J.; Trindel, Kelly A.; Imai, Mutsumi

2004-01-01

The English language makes a grammatical distinction between count nouns and mass nouns. For example, count nouns but not mass nouns can be pluralized and can appear with the indefinite article. Some scholars dismiss the distinction as an arbitrary convention of language whereas others suggest that it is conceptually based. The present studies…

Exploring a Literacy Website that Works: ReadWriteThink.org

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Rebecca S.; Balajthy, Ernest

2007-01-01

While it is easy to find lesson plans on the Internet, the quality of plans and the formats in which they are written vary considerably, and the process of sifting through the chaff in order to find the wheat can be time-consuming and discouraging. To address these concerns the authors of this Technology in Literacy column introduce…

Quality Evidence about Leadership for Organizational and Student Learning in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulford, Bill

2005-01-01

Where do those in schools start sorting the wheat from the chaff, genuine growth potions offering long-term improvement from the elixirs, short-term opportunism and/or unrealistic expectations? The current and growing emphasis on evidence informed policy and practice is as good a place as any. The purpose of this article is to take up the issues…

Redundancy of einselected information in quantum Darwinism: The irrelevance of irrelevant environment bits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zwolak, Michael; Zurek, Wojciech H.

2017-03-01

The objective, classical world emerges from the underlying quantum substrate via the proliferation of redundant copies of selected information into the environment, which acts as a communication channel, transmitting that information to observers. These copies are independently accessible, allowing many observers to reach consensus about the state of a quantum system via its imprints in the environment. Quantum Darwinism recognizes that the redundancy of information is thus central to the emergence of objective reality in the quantum world. However, in addition to the "quantum system of interest," there are many other systems "of no interest" in the Universe that can imprint information on the common environment. There is therefore a danger that the information of interest will be diluted with irrelevant bits, suppressing the redundancy responsible for objectivity. We show that mixing of the relevant (the "wheat") and irrelevant (the "chaff") bits of information makes little quantitative difference to the redundancy of the information of interest. Thus, we demonstrate that it does not matter whether one separates the wheat (relevant information) from the (irrelevant) chaff: The large redundancy of the relevant information survives dilution, providing evidence of the objective, effectively classical world.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: How Much Do Schools Really Benefit When States Raise Taxes on Their Behalf?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gold, Steven D.

Adequate revenue is essential to the existence of good schools. Recognizing this truth, numerous governors have proposed and many states have adopted tax increases to enhance school funding. The real question is whether education spending increased more than it would have if taxes had not been increased. To answer these questions, the booklet was…

78 FR 32632 - 36(b)(1) Arms Sales Notification

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-31

... low-drag training bombs, 240 MK-82 inert low-drag general purpose bombs, 90 GBU-12 inert laser-guided bombs, 60-GBU-38 inert GPS guided bombs, 120,000 PGU-27 inert training rounds, pilot training, JP- 8.../BBU-35B Training Chaff, 3,750 BDU-33D/B w/lugs/Mk4 spot low-drag training bombs, 240 MK-82 inert low...

Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook. 4th Edition

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-01

and Maintainability R&M Reliability and Maintainability RAT Ram Air Turbine RBOC Rapid Blooming Offboard Chaff RCP or RHCP Right-hand Circular...Doppler shifted return (see Figure 10). Reflections off rotating jet engine compressor blades, aircraft propellers, ram air turbine (RAT...Doppler techniques, in order to precisely predict aircraft ground speed and direction of motion. Wind influences are taken into account, such that

Winnowing the chaff of charlatanism from the wheat of science.

PubMed

Ernst, E

2010-12-01

Experts and lay people alike can sometimes find it difficult to demarcate the absurd. Here I propose a set of criteria that may be helpful in achieving this in the realm of healthcare: falsifiability, plausibility and some hallmarks of pseudoscience. Applying this method is unlikely to be fool-proof but it might be a valuable aid in discriminating credible from incredible health claims.

Winnowing the Chaff of Charlatanism from the Wheat of Science

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Experts and lay people alike can sometimes find it difficult to demarcate the absurd. Here I propose a set of criteria that may be helpful in achieving this in the realm of healthcare: falsifiability, plausibility and some hallmarks of pseudoscience. Applying this method is unlikely to be fool-proof but it might be a valuable aid in discriminating credible from incredible health claims. PMID:19202162

USSR and Eastern Europe Scienific Abstracts. Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences, Number 60

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-12-27

DECOMPOSITION OF CELLULOSE-CONTAINING WASTES BY THE HEAT-TOLERANT FUNGUS ASPERGILLUS TERREUS 17 p Moscow MIKROBIOL. PROM-ST«. REF. SB. [Microbiological...heat-tolerant fungus Aspergillus terreus 17 p grows and forms cellulolytic enzymes and xylanase in such agricultural wastes as barley and wheat chaff...cellulose subtrate. Chaetomium globosum activity produced the C^ cellulase enzyme but little protease. A flavus, A. niger and Penicillium purpurogenum

Unmanned Vanguard: Leveraging The Operational Effectiveness Of The Israeli Unmanned Aircraft System Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-01

tactical electronic and optical reconnaissance (both high and low altitude); and 3) electronic combat (jamming and chaff dispensing).7 In contrast, the...sites or other radar sites. IAI designed the Harpy as a loitering UAS that would sit over the battlefield and search for electronic emissions from...tactical reconnaissance, and can be modified to carry different payloads for electronic warfare or attack missions. The Hermes 450 is the smallest

Active-passive bistatic surveillance for long range air defense

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wardrop, B.; Molyneux-Berry, M. R. B.

1992-06-01

A hypothetical mobile support receiver capable of working within existing and future air defense networks as a means to maintain essential surveillance functions is considered. It is shown how multibeam receiver architecture supported by digital signal processing can substantially improve surveillance performance against chaff and jamming threats. A dual-mode support receiver concept is proposed which is based on the state-of-the-art phased-array technology, modular processing in industry standard hardware and existing networks.

Environmental Assessment: Recapitalization of the 49th WG Combat Capabilities and Capacities, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-07-01

of Liquid Oxygen (LOX). The new facilities would provide for the specific needs to maintain the F-16 engine, electronics , and maintenance... electronic countermeasures, and electronic counter countermeasures. 500 AGL to 40,000 MSL 0.5 to 1.0 hour Night Operations Aircraft intercepts (1...defensive maneuvering, chaff/flare, and electronic countermeasures. 2,000 AGL to 40,000 MSL 0.75 to 1.5 hour (Dissimilar) Air Combat Tactics

Induced Mutations for Improving Production on Bread and Durum Wheat

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stamo, Ilirjana; Ylli, Ariana; Dodbiba, Andon

2007-04-01

Wheat is a very important crop and has been bred for food and its improvement is continuous from cross-breeding. Radiation and chemically induced mutations have provided variability in selection for novel varieties. Four bread and one durum wheat cultivars were exposed to gamma rays, Cs 137 with doses 10, 15 and 20 krad (2000 seeds of each dose and cultivars). We have isolated mutant plants with height reduced and on cv Progress spike without chaff.

Individual and Composite Study Endpoints: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

PubMed Central

Goldberg, Robert; Gore, Joel M.; Barton, Bruce; Gurwitz, Jerry

2014-01-01

We provide an overview of the individual and combined clinical endpoints and patient reported outcomes typically used in clinical trials and prospective epidemiological investigations. We discuss the strengths and limitations associated with the utilization of aggregated study endpoints and surrogate measures of important clinical endpoints and patient-centered outcomes. We hope that the points raised in this overview will lead to the collection of clinically rich, relevant, measurable, and cost-efficient study outcomes. PMID:24486289

Induced Mutations for Improving Production on Bread and Durum Wheat

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stamo, Ilirjana; Ylli, Ariana; Dodbiba, Andon

Wheat is a very important crop and has been bred for food and its improvement is continuous from cross-breeding. Radiation and chemically induced mutations have provided variability in selection for novel varieties. Four bread and one durum wheat cultivars were exposed to gamma rays, Cs 137 with doses 10, 15 and 20 krad (2000 seeds of each dose and cultivars). We have isolated mutant plants with height reduced and on cv Progress spike without chaff.

Separating the wheat from the chaff: systematic identification of functionally relevant noncoding variants in ADHD.

PubMed

Tong, J H S; Hawi, Z; Dark, C; Cummins, T D R; Johnson, B P; Newman, D P; Lau, R; Vance, A; Heussler, H S; Matthews, N; Bellgrove, M A; Pang, K C

2016-11-01

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable psychiatric condition with negative lifetime outcomes. Uncovering its genetic architecture should yield important insights into the neurobiology of ADHD and assist development of novel treatment strategies. Twenty years of candidate gene investigations and more recently genome-wide association studies have identified an array of potential association signals. In this context, separating the likely true from false associations ('the wheat' from 'the chaff') will be crucial for uncovering the functional biology of ADHD. Here, we defined a set of 2070 DNA variants that showed evidence of association with ADHD (or were in linkage disequilibrium). More than 97% of these variants were noncoding, and were prioritised for further exploration using two tools-genome-wide annotation of variants (GWAVA) and Combined Annotation-Dependent Depletion (CADD)-that were recently developed to rank variants based upon their likely pathogenicity. Capitalising on recent efforts such as the Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements and US National Institutes of Health Roadmap Epigenomics Projects to improve understanding of the noncoding genome, we subsequently identified 65 variants to which we assigned functional annotations, based upon their likely impact on alternative splicing, transcription factor binding and translational regulation. We propose that these 65 variants, which possess not only a high likelihood of pathogenicity but also readily testable functional hypotheses, represent a tractable shortlist for future experimental validation in ADHD. Taken together, this study brings into sharp focus the likely relevance of noncoding variants for the genetic risk associated with ADHD, and more broadly suggests a bioinformatics approach that should be relevant to other psychiatric disorders.

Regional diversity on the timing for the initial appearance of cereal cultivation and domestication in southwest Asia.

PubMed

Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia; Colledge, Sue; Zapata, Lydia; Teira-Mayolini, Luis Cesar; Ibáñez, Juan José

2016-12-06

Recent studies have broadened our knowledge regarding the origins of agriculture in southwest Asia by highlighting the multiregional and protracted nature of plant domestication. However, there have been few archaeobotanical data to examine whether the early adoption of wild cereal cultivation and the subsequent appearance of domesticated-type cereals occurred in parallel across southwest Asia, or if chronological differences existed between regions. The evaluation of the available archaeobotanical evidence indicates that during Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) cultivation of wild cereal species was common in regions such as the southern-central Levant and the Upper Euphrates area, but the plant-based subsistence in the eastern Fertile Crescent (southeast Turkey, Iran, and Iraq) focused on the exploitation of plants such as legumes, goatgrass, fruits, and nuts. Around 10.7-10.2 ka Cal BP (early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), the predominant exploitation of cereals continued in the southern-central Levant and is correlated with the appearance of significant proportions (∼30%) of domesticated-type cereal chaff in the archaeobotanical record. In the eastern Fertile Crescent exploitation of legumes, fruits, nuts, and grasses continued, and in the Euphrates legumes predominated. In these two regions domesticated-type cereal chaff (>10%) is not identified until the middle and late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10.2-8.3 ka Cal BP). We propose that the cultivation of wild and domesticated cereals developed at different times across southwest Asia and was conditioned by the regionally diverse plant-based subsistence strategies adopted by Pre-Pottery Neolithic groups.

Regional diversity on the timing for the initial appearance of cereal cultivation and domestication in southwest Asia

PubMed Central

Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia; Colledge, Sue; Zapata, Lydia; Teira-Mayolini, Luis Cesar; Ibáñez, Juan José

2016-01-01

Recent studies have broadened our knowledge regarding the origins of agriculture in southwest Asia by highlighting the multiregional and protracted nature of plant domestication. However, there have been few archaeobotanical data to examine whether the early adoption of wild cereal cultivation and the subsequent appearance of domesticated-type cereals occurred in parallel across southwest Asia, or if chronological differences existed between regions. The evaluation of the available archaeobotanical evidence indicates that during Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) cultivation of wild cereal species was common in regions such as the southern-central Levant and the Upper Euphrates area, but the plant-based subsistence in the eastern Fertile Crescent (southeast Turkey, Iran, and Iraq) focused on the exploitation of plants such as legumes, goatgrass, fruits, and nuts. Around 10.7–10.2 ka Cal BP (early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), the predominant exploitation of cereals continued in the southern-central Levant and is correlated with the appearance of significant proportions (∼30%) of domesticated-type cereal chaff in the archaeobotanical record. In the eastern Fertile Crescent exploitation of legumes, fruits, nuts, and grasses continued, and in the Euphrates legumes predominated. In these two regions domesticated-type cereal chaff (>10%) is not identified until the middle and late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10.2–8.3 ka Cal BP). We propose that the cultivation of wild and domesticated cereals developed at different times across southwest Asia and was conditioned by the regionally diverse plant-based subsistence strategies adopted by Pre-Pottery Neolithic groups. PMID:27930348

Spectrophotometry of Artemisia tridentata to quantitatively determine subspecies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Richardson, Bryce; Boyd, Alicia; Tobiasson, Tanner; Germino, Matthew

2018-01-01

Ecological restoration is predicated on our abilities to discern plant taxa. Taxonomic identification is a first step in ensuring that plants are appropriately adapted to the site. An example of the need to identify taxonomic differences comes from big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). This species is composed of three predominant subspecies occupying distinct environmental niches, but overlap and hybridization are common in ecotones. Restoration of A. tridentata largely occurs using wildland collected seed, but there is uncertainty in the identification of subspecies or mix of subspecies from seed collections. Laboratory techniques that can determine subspecies composition would be desirable to ensure that subspecies match the restoration site environment. In this study, we use spectrophotometry to quantify chemical differences in the water-soluble compound, coumarin. Ultraviolet (UV) absorbance of A. tridentata subsp. vaseyana showed distinct differences among A.t. tridentata and wyomingensis. No UV absorbance differences were detected between A.t. tridentata and wyomingensis. Analyses of samples from > 600 plants growing in two common gardens showed that UV absorbance was unaffected by environment. Moreover, plant tissues (leaves and seed chaff) explained only a small amount of the variance. UV fluorescence of water-eluted plant tissue has been used for many years to indicate A.t. vaseyana; however, interpretation has been subjective. Use of spectrophotometry to acquire UV absorbance provides empirical results that can be used in seed testing laboratories using the seed chaff present with the seed to certify A. tridentata subspecies composition. On the basis of our methods, UV absorbance values 3.1 would indicate either A.t. tridentata or wyomingensis. UV absorbance values between 2.7 and 3.1 would indicate a mixture of A.t. vaseyana and the other two subspecies.

Behavioural ecology cannot turn its back on Lévy walk research. Comment on "Liberating Lévy walk research from the shackles of optimal foraging" by A.M. Reynolds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartumeus, Frederic

2015-09-01

Interdisciplinary research on Lévy walks at the intersection between physics and biology is here to stay, albeit the scope of its role and utility in different areas of biology, including animal foraging, are still to be defined. After a decade, the field is still sorting out relevant questions from misleading interpretations, separating the wheat from the chaff. This task should be easy but it is not. Some reasons are the interdisciplinarity of the subject (maths, physics, biology), which multiplies semantic problems and the questions of interest, and the tight combination of theory and data that is needed to advance in the field.

A Hybrid Approach to Protect Palmprint Templates

PubMed Central

Sun, Dongmei; Xiong, Ke; Qiu, Zhengding

2014-01-01

Biometric template protection is indispensable to protect personal privacy in large-scale deployment of biometric systems. Accuracy, changeability, and security are three critical requirements for template protection algorithms. However, existing template protection algorithms cannot satisfy all these requirements well. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach that combines random projection and fuzzy vault to improve the performances at these three points. Heterogeneous space is designed for combining random projection and fuzzy vault properly in the hybrid scheme. New chaff point generation method is also proposed to enhance the security of the heterogeneous vault. Theoretical analyses of proposed hybrid approach in terms of accuracy, changeability, and security are given in this paper. Palmprint database based experimental results well support the theoretical analyses and demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed hybrid approach. PMID:24982977

A hybrid approach to protect palmprint templates.

PubMed

Liu, Hailun; Sun, Dongmei; Xiong, Ke; Qiu, Zhengding

2014-01-01

Biometric template protection is indispensable to protect personal privacy in large-scale deployment of biometric systems. Accuracy, changeability, and security are three critical requirements for template protection algorithms. However, existing template protection algorithms cannot satisfy all these requirements well. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach that combines random projection and fuzzy vault to improve the performances at these three points. Heterogeneous space is designed for combining random projection and fuzzy vault properly in the hybrid scheme. New chaff point generation method is also proposed to enhance the security of the heterogeneous vault. Theoretical analyses of proposed hybrid approach in terms of accuracy, changeability, and security are given in this paper. Palmprint database based experimental results well support the theoretical analyses and demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed hybrid approach.

Influence of Mechanical Properties of Aerial Shells made from Biodegradable Plastics on Smaller Fragmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kudo, Makoto; Murata, Kenji; Kamata, Satoru; Hamada, Fumio

In this paper, a new aerial shell made of biodegradable plastics was developed and explosion tests were carried out using 2.5-10 gou-size firework aerial shells at a ground test site in order to observe the fragmentation. The dispersed fragments were then collected and their size and distribution measured. In order to monitor the fragmentation visually, a high-speed camera was used to film the ignition of the bursting charge and the scattering of the shell fragments. The shell fragments became much smaller, because mechanical properties of biodegradable plastics that were added improved polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chaff powder (CP). Fibrillation was seen in PBS/PVA/CP, and it seemed effective for mechanical properties. As a result, safer aerial shells which disperse into smaller fragments on explosion were successfully developed.

Relationship of deoxynivalenol content in grain, chaff, and straw with Fusarium head blight severity in wheat varieties with various levels of resistance.

PubMed

Ji, Fang; Wu, Jirong; Zhao, Hongyan; Xu, Jianhong; Shi, Jianrong

2015-03-05

A total of 122 wheat varieties obtained from the Nordic Genetic Resource Center were infected artificially with an aggressive Fusariumasiaticum strain in a field experiment. We calculated the severity of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and determined the deoxynivalenol (DON) content of wheat grain, straw and glumes. We found DON contamination levels to be highest in the glumes, intermediate in the straw, and lowest in the grain in most samples. The DON contamination levels did not increase consistently with increased FHB incidence. The DON levels in the wheat varieties with high FHB resistance were not necessarily low, and those in the wheat varieties with high FHB sensitivity were not necessarily high. We selected 50 wheat genotypes with reduced DON content for future research. This study will be helpful in breeding new wheat varieties with low levels of DON accumulation.

The Importance of Ligand Conformational Energies in Carbohydrate Docking: Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff

PubMed Central

Nivedha, Anita K.; Makeneni, Spandana; Foley, B. Lachele; Tessier, Matthew B.; Woods, Robert J.

2014-01-01

Docking algorithms that aim to be applicable to a broad range of ligands suffer reduced accuracy because they are unable to incorporate ligand-specific conformational energies. Here, we develop internal energy functions, Carbohydrate Intrinsic (CHI), to account for the rotational preferences of the glycosidic torsion angles in carbohydrates. The relative energies predicted by the CHI energy functions mirror the conformational distributions of glycosidic linkages determined from a survey of oligosaccharide-protein complexes in the Protein Data Bank. Addition of CHI energies to the standard docking scores in Autodock 3, 4.2, and Vina consistently improves pose ranking of oligosaccharides docked to a set of anti-carbohydrate antibodies. The CHI energy functions are also independent of docking algorithm, and with minor modifications, may be incorporated into both theoretical modeling methods, and experimental NMR or X-ray structure refinement programs. PMID:24375430

The Internet for neurosurgeons: current resources and future challenges.

PubMed

Hughes, Mark A; Brennan, Paul M

2011-06-01

Our professional and personal lives depend increasingly on access to information via the Internet. As an open access resource, the Internet is on the whole unbridled by censorship and can facilitate the rapid propagation of ideas and discoveries. At the same time, this liberty in sharing information, being unregulated and often free from external validation, can be oppressive; overloading the user and hindering effective decision-making. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to reliably ascertain the provenance of data and opinion. We must, therefore, discern what is useful, relevant, and above all reliable if we are to harness the Internet's potential to improve training, delivery of care, research, and provision of patient information. This article profiles the resources currently available to neurosurgeons, asks how we can sort the informational wheat from the chaff, and explores where future developments might further influence neurosurgical practice.

Modification of dry grain processing for rice nutrition produced

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, A. N. F.; Genisa, J.; Dirpan, A.; Badani, A. A.

2018-05-01

Rice is a staple food for people in Indonesia that provides high energy and nutrients of up to 360 calories per 100 g. Based on the research it was known that the nutrient content in rice will increased by soaking. This is suspected because the nutrient content in the aleurone layer adsorbed to the endosperm. The purpose of this research was to know the effect of dry grain immersion on the nutrition of rice produced. The method of this research was conducted through some stages: 1. Preparation of raw materials, 2. Grain immersion, 3. Grain drying, 4. Peeling chaff, 5. Testing the nutritional value of rice. The research was processed by using factorial randomized complete random design (RCRD) with three replications. The result showed that soaking the grain for 12 hours has the highest nutritional value increases compared to the control. Proximate test resulted from the best treatment were: protein content of 8.26%, ash content of 0.42% and thiamine content of 0.023%.

Wind structure and small-scale wind variability in the stratosphere and mesosphere during the November 1980 Energy Budget Campaign

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidlin, F. J.; Carlson, M.; Rees, D.; Offermann, D.; Philbrick, C. R.; Widdel, H. U.

1982-01-01

Rocket observations made from two sites in northern Scandinavia between November 6 and December 1, 1980, as part of the Energy Budget Campaign are discussed. It was found that significant vertical and temporal changes in the wind structure were present and that they coincided with different geomagnetic conditions, that is, quiet and enhanced. Before November 16, the meridional wind component above 60 km was found to be positive (southerly), whereas the magnitude of the zonal wind component increased with altitude. After November 16 the meridional component became negative (northerly), and the magnitude of the zonal wind component was observed to decrease with altitude. Time sections of the perturbations of the zonal wind reveal the presence of vertically propagating waves, suggesting gravity wave activity. The waves are found to increase in wavelength from 3-4 km near 40 km to more than 12 km near 80 km. The observational techniques made use of chaff foil, chemical trails, inflatable spheres, and parachutes.

Short-term effects of different organic amendments on soil chemical, biochemical and biological indicators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mondelli, Donato; Aly, Adel; Yirga Dagnachew, Ababu; Piscitelli, Lea; Dumontet, Stefano; Miano, Teodoro

2014-05-01

The limited availability of animal manure and the high cost of good quality compost lead to difficult soil quality management under organic agriculture. Therefore, it is important to find out alternative organic soil amendments and more flexible strategies that are able to sustain crop productivity and maintain and enhance soil quality. A three years study was carried out in the experimental fields of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari located in Valenzano, Italy. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effects of different fertility management strategies on soil quality in order to estimate the role of innovative matrices for their use in organic farming. The experiment consists of seven treatments applied to a common crop rotation. The treatments include alternative organic amendments (1- olive mill wastewater OMW, 2- residues of mushroom cultivation MUS, 3- coffee chaff COF), common soil amendments (4- compost COM, 5- faba bean intercropping LEG, 6- cow manure - MAN) and as a reference treatment (7- mineral fertilizer COV). The soil quality was assessed before and after the application of the treatments, through biological (microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, soil respiration and metabolic quotient), biochemical (soil enzymatic activities: β-glucosidase, alkaline phospatase, urease, fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis), and chemical (pH, soil organic carbon, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorous, exchangeable potassium, dissolved organic carbon and total dissolved nitrogen) indicators. Based on the results obtained after the second year, all treatments were able to improve various soil chemical parameters as compared to mineral fertilizer. The incorporation of COF and OMW seemed to be more effective in improving soil total N and exchangeable K, while MAN significantly increased available P. All the amendments enhance dissolved organic C, soil respiration, microbial biomass and metabolic quotient as compared to control soil. Results concerning biochemical indicators revealed that phosphatase and β-glycosidase were significantly reduced, while activities of urease and FDA were improved in all amended plots in comparison to the control, regardless of amendment type. Data demonstrated the efficiency, the high sensitivity and a quick response of the biochemical indicators in assessing soil quality changes. As a conclusion, it is possible to emphasize that alternative and common soil organic amendments behave similarly in enhancing the chemical, biochemical and biological properties. The alternative soil organic amendments could, then, be candidates for substituting some commonly used one which are currently showing shortage in their supply and a lowering in their quality. Keywords: Organic agriculture, Soil quality, Enzymatic activities, Olive mill wastewater, Residues of mushroom cultivation, Coffee chaff.

Evolution of various fractions during the windrow composting of chicken manure with rice chaff.

PubMed

Kong, Zhijian; Wang, Xuanqing; Liu, Qiumei; Li, Tuo; Chen, Xing; Chai, Lifang; Liu, Dongyang; Shen, Qirong

2018-02-01

Different fractions during the 85-day windrow composting were characterized based on various parameters, such as physiochemical properties and hydrolytic enzyme activities; several technologies were used, including spectral scanning techniques, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and 13 C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( 13 C NMR). The evaluated parameters fluctuated strongly during the first 3 weeks which was the most active period of the composting process. The principal components analysis (PCA) results showed that four classes of the samples were clearly distinguishable, in which the physiochemical parameters were similar, and that the dynamics of the composting process was significantly influenced by C/N and moisture content. The 13 C NMR results indicated that O-alkyl-C was the predominant group both in the solid and water-soluble fractions (WSF), and the decomposition of O-alkyl-C mainly occurred during the active stage. In general, the various parameters indicated that windrow composting is a feasible treatment that can be used for the resource reuse of agricultural wastes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

"Repeating Events" as Estimator of Location Precision: The China National Seismograph Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Changsheng; Wu, Zhongliang; Li, Yutong; Ma, Tengfei

2014-03-01

"Repeating earthquakes" identified by waveform cross-correlation, with inter-event separation of no more than 1 km, can be used for assessment of location precision. Assuming that the network-measured apparent inter-epicenter distance X of the "repeating doublets" indicates the location precision, we estimated the regionalized location quality of the China National Seismograph Network by comparing the "repeating events" in and around China by S chaff and R ichards (Science 303: 1176-1178, 2004; J Geophys Res 116: B03309, 2011) and the monthly catalogue of the China Earthquake Networks Center. The comparison shows that the average X value of the China National Seismograph Network is approximately 10 km. The mis-location is larger for the Tibetan Plateau, west and north of Xinjiang, and east of Inner Mongolia, as indicated by larger X values. Mis-location is correlated with the completeness magnitude of the earthquake catalogue. Using the data from the Beijing Capital Circle Region, the dependence of the mis-location on the distribution of seismic stations can be further confirmed.

Immobilization of microbial cell and yeast cell and its application to biomass conversion using radiation techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaetsu, Isao; Kumakura, Minoru; Fujimura, Takashi; Kasai, Noboru; Tamada, Masao

The recent results of immobilization of cellulase-producing cells and ethanol-fermentation yeast by radiation were reported. The enzyme of cellulase produced by immobilized cells was used for saccharification of lignocellulosic wastes and immobilized yeast cells were used for fermentation reaction from glucose to ethanol. The wastes such as chaff and bagasse were treated by γ-ray or electron-beam irradiation in the presence of alkali and subsequent mechanical crushing, to form a fine powder less than 50 μm in diameter. On the other hand, Trichoderma reesei as a cellulase-producing microbial cell was immobilized on a fibrous carrier having a specific porous structure and cultured to produce cellulase. The enzymatic saccharification of the pretreated waste was carried out using the produced cellulase. The enhanced fermentation process to produce ethanol from glucose with the immobilized yeast by radiation was also studied. The ethanol productivity of immobilized growing yeast cells thus obtained was thirteen times that of free yeast cells in a 1:1 volume of liquid medium to immobilized yeast cells.

Conjunction Assessment Screening Volume Sizing and Event Filtering in Light of Natural Conjunction Event Development Behaviors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hejduk, M. D.; Pachura, D. A.

2017-01-01

Conjunction Assessment screening volumes used in the protection of NASA satellites are constructed as geometric volumes about these satellites, of a size expected to capture a certain percentage of the serious conjunction events by a certain time before closest approach. However, the analyses that established these sizes were grounded on covariance-based projections rather than empirical screening results, did not tailor the volume sizes to ensure operational actionability of those results, and did not consider the adjunct ability to produce data that could provide prevenient assistance for maneuver planning. The present study effort seeks to reconsider these questions based on a six-month dataset of empirical screening results using an extremely large screening volume. The results, pursued here for a highly-populated orbit regime near 700 km altitude, identify theoretical limits of screening volume performance, explore volume configuration to facilitate both maneuver remediation planning as well as basic asset protection, and recommend sizing principles that maximize volume performance while minimizing the capture of "chaff" conjunctions that are unlikely ever to become serious events.

Production, Purification and Characterisation of a Potential Fibrinolytic Protease from Endophytic Xylaria curta by Solid Substrate Fermentation.

PubMed

Meshram, Vineet; Saxena, Sanjai; Paul, Karan; Gupta, Mahiti; Kapoor, Neha

2017-04-01

The present investigation highlights the optimal conditions for production of a non-toxic, bi-functional fibrinolytic enzyme xylarinase produced by endophytic fungus Xylaria curta by solid substrate fermentation using rice chaff medium. The purified enzyme is a monomeric protein with a molecular mass of ∼33 kDa. The enzyme exhibits cleavage of Aα and Bβ chains of fibrin(ogen) and has no effect on γ chain. The optimal fibrinolytic activity of the enzyme was observed at 35 °C and pH 8. The fibrinolytic activity was enhanced in the presence of Ca 2+ , whereas it was completely inhibited in the presence of Fe 2+ and Zn 2+ ions and inhibitors like EDTA and EGTA suggesting it to be a metalloprotease. The K m and V max of the enzyme for azocasein were 326 μM and 0.13 μM min -1 . The N-terminal sequence of the enzyme (SNGPLPGGVVWAG) was same when compared to xylarinase isolated from culture broth of X. curta. Thus, xylarinase could be exploited as a potent clot busting enzyme which could be produced on large scale using solid substrate fermentation.

Plants as highly diverse sources of construction wood, handicrafts and fibre in the Heihe valley (Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi, China): the importance of minor forest products.

PubMed

Kang, Jin; Kang, Yongxiang; Feng, Jing; Liu, Mengying; Ji, Xiaolian; Li, Dengwu; Stawarczyk, Kinga; Łuczaj, Łukasz

2017-06-30

Chinese rural communities living among species-rich forests have little documentation on species used to make handicrafts and construction materials originating from the surrounding vegetation. Our research aimed at recording minor wood uses in the Heihe valley in the Qinling mountains. We carried out 37 semi-structured interviews in seven villages. We documented the use of 84 species of plants. All local large canopy trees are used for some purpose. Smaller trees and shrubs which are particularly hard are selectively cut. The bark of a few species was used to make shoes, hats, steamers and ropes, but this tradition is nearly gone. A few species, mainly bamboo, are used for basket making, and year-old willow branches are used for brushing off the chaff during wheat winnowing. The traditional use of wood materials documented suggests that some rare and endangered tree species may have been selectively cut due to their valuable wood, e.g. Fraxinus mandshurica and Taxus wallichiana var. chinensis. Some other rare species, e.g. Dipteronia sinensis, are little used and little valued.

The American Cleft Palate Association: its first 36 years.

PubMed

Wells, C G

1979-01-01

History involves memory, and sometimes memory is faulty. History requires documentation, and sometimes documents cannot be found. History demands winnowing, and sometimes the wheat and the chaff cannot be completely separated. History is an assembly of details, and details may become burdensome. History is a challenge, to which the historian tries to respond. Surely, earlier Historians of the American Cleft Palate Association must have encountered this challenge. The present Historian acknowledges the work of her predecessors: George H. Foster, W. J. Robinson, and William Harkins from dentistry and Gretchen M. Phair and Asa J. Berlin from speech pathology. In preparing this review of events that took place from 1943 to 1978, in the United States and in other countries, during times of war and times of relative peace, through difficulties and accomplishments, I have attempted to be as accurate as possible. If I have distorted facts and if I have omitted people and happenings that should have been included, I have not done so intentionally. As Historian of the American Cleft Palate Association, I have appreciated the opportunity to learn about the organization and the people, past and present, who have built and maintained it. Thank you for giving me this assignment.

The effectiveness of various Rhizobacteria carriers to improve the shelf life and the stability of Rhizobacteria as Bioherbicide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rakian, T. C.; Karimuna, L.; Taufik, M.; Sutariati, G. A. K.; Muhidin; Fermin, U.

2018-02-01

Deleterius Rhizobacteria (DRB) has a potential to control of weed and act as a bioherbicide. Developing a method to weed control that environmentally sound friendly has been increasingly studied. Rhizobacteria can form colonies on weed rooting and synthesize the secondary metabolite compounds. The effectiveness of rhizobacteria as bioherbicide is determined by its survival to be stored for a long time. The objective of this study is to obtain the type of carrier which effectively maintains the life and stability of DRB. Therefore it is necessary to do in vivo and in-vitro research. This study consists of two stages of testing the effectiveness of the carrier in increasing the shelf life of rhizobacteria and testing the effectiveness stability as a bioherbicide on Ageratum conyzoides weed after storage for 20 weeks. Research was conducted in Agronomy Lab, Agriculture Faculty, Halu Oleo University Kendari, Since August to December 2016. Research found that the talc powder and chaff charcoal powder were effective as a carrier of rhizobacteria and able to maintain the viability of rhizobacteria Bacillus lentus A05 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa A08 for five months and also able to maintain the stability of rhizobacteria as bioherbicide.

Improvements to the ShipIR/NTCS adaptive track gate algorithm and 3D flare particle model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramaswamy, Srinivasan; Vaitekunas, David A.; Gunter, Willem H.; February, Faith J.

2017-05-01

A key component in any image-based tracking system is the adaptive tracking algorithm used to segment the image into potential targets, rank-and-select the best candidate target, and gate the selected target to further improve tracker performance. Similarly, a key component in any soft-kill response to an incoming guided missile is the flare/chaff decoy used to distract or seduce the seeker homing system away from the naval platform. This paper describes the recent improvements to the naval threat countermeasure simulator (NTCS) of the NATO-standard ship signature model (ShipIR). Efforts to analyse and match the 3D flare particle model against actual IR measurements of the Chemring TALOS IR round resulted in further refinement of the 3D flare particle distribution. The changes in the flare model characteristics were significant enough to require an overhaul to the adaptive track gate (ATG) algorithm in the way it detects the presence of flare decoys and reacquires the target after flare separation. A series of test scenarios are used to demonstrate the impact of the new flare and ATG on IR tactics simulation.

Converting environmental risks to benefits by using spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a valuable resource.

PubMed

Stylianou, Marinos; Agapiou, Agapios; Omirou, Michalis; Vyrides, Ioannis; Ioannides, Ioannis M; Maratheftis, Grivas; Fasoula, Dionysia

2018-06-02

Coffee is perhaps one of the most vital ingredients in humans' daily life in modern world. However, this causes the production of million tons of relevant wastes, i.e., plastic cups, aluminum capsules, coffee chaff (silver skin), and spent coffee grounds (SCG), all thrown untreated into landfills. It is estimated that 1 kg of instant coffee generates around 2 kg of wet SCG; a relatively unique organic waste stream, with little to no contamination, separated directly in the source by the coffee shops. The produced waste has been under researchers' microscope as a useful feedstock for a number of promising applications. SCG is considered a valuable, nutrients rich source of bioactive compounds (e.g., phenolics, flavonoids, carotenoids, lipids, chlorogenic and protocatechuic acid, melanoidins, diterpenes, xanthines, vitamin precursors, etc.) and a useful resource material in other processes (e.g., soil improver and compost, heavy metals absorbent, biochar, biodiesel, pellets, cosmetics, food, and deodorization products). This paper aims to provide a holistic approach for the SCG waste management, highlighting a series of processes and applications in environmental solutions, food industry, and agricultural sector. Thus, the latest developments and approaches of SCG waste management are reviewed and discussed.

Wind structure and variability in the middle atmosphere during the November 1980 energy budget campaign

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidlin, F. J.; Carlson, M.; Rees, D.; Offermann, D.; Philbrick, C. R.; Widdel, H. U.

1985-01-01

Between November 6 and December 1, 1980 series of rocket observations were obtained from two sites in northern Scandinavia (68 deg N) as part of the Energy Budget Campaign, revealing the presence of significant vertical and temporal changes in the wind structure. These changes coincided with different geomagnetic conditions, i.e. quiet and enhanced. Large amounts of rocket data were gathered from high latitudes over such a short interval of time. Prior to November 16 the meridional wind component above 60 km was found to be positive (southerly), while the magnitude of the zonal wind component incresed with altitude. After November 16 the meridional component became negative (northerly) and the magnitude of the zonal wind component was noted to decrease with altitude. Time-sections of the perturbations of the zonal wind show the presence of vertically propagating waves, which suggest gravity wave activity. These waves increase in length from 1 km near 30 km to over 12 km near 80 km. The observational techniques employed Andoya (69 deg N), Norway, and Esrange (67.9 deg N), Sweden, consisted of chaff foil, instrumented rigid spheres, chemical trails, inflatable spheres and parachutes.

Optimization of torrefaction conditions of coffee industry residues using desirability function approach.

PubMed

Buratti, C; Barbanera, M; Lascaro, E; Cotana, F

2018-03-01

The aim of the present study is to analyze the influence of independent process variables such as temperature, residence time, and heating rate on the torrefaction process of coffee chaff (CC) and spent coffee grounds (SCGs). Response surface methodology and a three-factor and three-level Box-Behnken design were used in order to evaluate the effects of the process variables on the weight loss (W L ) and the Higher Heating Value (HHV) of the torrefied materials. Results showed that the effects of the three factors on both responses were sequenced as follows: temperature>residence time>heating rate. Data obtained from the experiments were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and fitted to second-order polynomial models by using multiple regression analysis. Predictive models were determined, able to obtain satisfactory fittings of the experimental data, with coefficient of determination (R 2 ) values higher than 0.95. An optimization study using Derringer's desired function methodology was also carried out and the optimal torrefaction conditions were found: temperature 271.7°C, residence time 20min, heating rate 5°C/min for CC and 256.0°C, 20min, 25°C/min for SCGs. The experimental values closely agree with the corresponding predicted values. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Feature aided Monte Carlo probabilistic data association filter for ballistic missile tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ozdemir, Onur; Niu, Ruixin; Varshney, Pramod K.; Drozd, Andrew L.; Loe, Richard

2011-05-01

The problem of ballistic missile tracking in the presence of clutter is investigated. Probabilistic data association filter (PDAF) is utilized as the basic filtering algorithm. We propose to use sequential Monte Carlo methods, i.e., particle filters, aided with amplitude information (AI) in order to improve the tracking performance of a single target in clutter when severe nonlinearities exist in the system. We call this approach "Monte Carlo probabilistic data association filter with amplitude information (MCPDAF-AI)." Furthermore, we formulate a realistic problem in the sense that we use simulated radar cross section (RCS) data for a missile warhead and a cylinder chaff using Lucernhammer1, a state of the art electromagnetic signature prediction software, to model target and clutter amplitude returns as additional amplitude features which help to improve data association and tracking performance. A performance comparison is carried out between the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the particle filter under various scenarios using single and multiple sensors. The results show that, when only one sensor is used, the MCPDAF performs significantly better than the EKF in terms of tracking accuracy under severe nonlinear conditions for ballistic missile tracking applications. However, when the number of sensors is increased, even under severe nonlinear conditions, the EKF performs as well as the MCPDAF.

Multicollinearity in spatial genetics: separating the wheat from the chaff using commonality analyses.

PubMed

Prunier, J G; Colyn, M; Legendre, X; Nimon, K F; Flamand, M C

2015-01-01

Direct gradient analyses in spatial genetics provide unique opportunities to describe the inherent complexity of genetic variation in wildlife species and are the object of many methodological developments. However, multicollinearity among explanatory variables is a systemic issue in multivariate regression analyses and is likely to cause serious difficulties in properly interpreting results of direct gradient analyses, with the risk of erroneous conclusions, misdirected research and inefficient or counterproductive conservation measures. Using simulated data sets along with linear and logistic regressions on distance matrices, we illustrate how commonality analysis (CA), a detailed variance-partitioning procedure that was recently introduced in the field of ecology, can be used to deal with nonindependence among spatial predictors. By decomposing model fit indices into unique and common (or shared) variance components, CA allows identifying the location and magnitude of multicollinearity, revealing spurious correlations and thus thoroughly improving the interpretation of multivariate regressions. Despite a few inherent limitations, especially in the case of resistance model optimization, this review highlights the great potential of CA to account for complex multicollinearity patterns in spatial genetics and identifies future applications and lines of research. We strongly urge spatial geneticists to systematically investigate commonalities when performing direct gradient analyses. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Oral Administration of Recombinant Lactococcus lactis Expressing the Cellulase Gene Increases Digestibility of Fiber in Geese.

PubMed

Zhou, Haizhu; Gao, Yunhang; Gao, Guang; Lou, Yujie

2015-12-01

Enhancing cellulose digestibility in animals is important for improving the utilization of forage, which can decrease the amount of food used in animal production. The aim of the present study was to achieve recombinant expression of the cellulase gene in Lactococcus lactis and evaluate the effects of oral administration of the recombinant L. lactis on fiber digestibility in geese. Cellulase (Cell) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) genes were cloned into a L. lactis expression vector (pNZ8149) to construct the recombinant expression plasmid (pNZ8149-GFP-Cell). Then, the recombinant expression plasmid was transformed into L. lactis (NZ3900) competent cells by electroporation to obtain recombinant L. lactis (pNZ8149-GFP-Cell/NZ3900) in which protein expression was induced by Nisin. Expression of GFP and Cell by the recombinant L. lactis was confirmed using SDS-PAGE, fluorescence detection, and Congo red assays. A feeding experiment showed that oral administration of pNZ8149-GFP-Cell/NZ3900 significantly increased the digestibility of dietary fiber in geese fed either a maize stalk diet or a rice chaff diet. Therefore, oral administration of recombinant L. lactis cells expressing the cellulase gene increases fiber digestibility in geese, offering a way to increase the utilization of dietary fiber in geese.

Utilization of radiation technique on the saccharification and fermentation of biomass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaetsu, I.; Kumakura, M.; Fujimura, T.; Yoshii, F.; Kojima, T.; Tamada, M.

The application of irradiation technique to the process of saccharification and subsequent fermentation of cellulosic wastes such as chaff and rice straw to obtain ethanol, was investigated. It was found that when waste raw materials were irradiated by ?-ray or electron beam, they became accessible to the subsequent enzymatic saccharification reaction. Irradiation of 10 7-10 8 Rad was enough for this effect. Some kind of additives reduced necessary dosage for this pretreatment. Cellulase, Trichoderma reesei which produce cellulase, and yeast were immobilized as biocatalysts for biomass conversion by radiation-induced polymerization of glass-forming monomer at low temperature. The immobilized cellulase showed almost same activity of glucose production as the native cellulase. Continuous saccharification reaction was carried out by using the immobilized cellulase. The immobilized Trichoderma reesei and the immobilized yeast showed almost same activity as the intact biocatalysts. It was concluded that the continuous saccharification and subsequent fermentation could be carried out effectively by using the immobilized biocatalysts. Spinach chloroplasts were immobilized by the same method as the first step for the conversion of water into hydrogen gas using solar energy. The immobilized chloroplasts kept the O 2 evolution activity in storage more than 30 days at 4°C. Thermostatility of chloroplasts was also improved greatly by the immobilization.

Gorilla Mothers Also Matter! New Insights on Social Transmission in Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Captivity

PubMed Central

Luef, Eva Maria; Pika, Simone

2013-01-01

The present paper describes two distinct behaviors relating to food processing and communication that were observed in a community of five separately housed groups of lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in captivity during two study periods one decade apart: (1) a food processing technique to separate wheat from chaff, the so-called puff-blowing technique; and (2) a male display used to attract the attention of visitors, the so-called throw-kiss-display. We investigated (a) whether the behaviors were transmitted within the respective groups; and if yes, (b) their possible mode of transmission. Our results showed that only the food processing technique spread from three to twenty-one individuals during the ten-year period, whereas the communicative display died out completely. The main transmission mode of the puff-blowing technique was the mother-offspring dyad: offspring of puff-blowing mothers showed the behavior, while the offspring of non- puff-blowing mothers did not. These results strongly support the role mothers play in the acquisition of novel skills and vertical social transmission. Furthermore, they suggest that behaviors, which provide a direct benefit to individuals, have a high chance of social transmission while the loss of benefits can result in the extinction of behaviors. PMID:24312184

Gorilla mothers also matter! New insights on social transmission in gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in captivity.

PubMed

Luef, Eva Maria; Pika, Simone

2013-01-01

The present paper describes two distinct behaviors relating to food processing and communication that were observed in a community of five separately housed groups of lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in captivity during two study periods one decade apart: (1) a food processing technique to separate wheat from chaff, the so-called puff-blowing technique; and (2) a male display used to attract the attention of visitors, the so-called throw-kiss-display. We investigated (a) whether the behaviors were transmitted within the respective groups; and if yes, (b) their possible mode of transmission. Our results showed that only the food processing technique spread from three to twenty-one individuals during the ten-year period, whereas the communicative display died out completely. The main transmission mode of the puff-blowing technique was the mother-offspring dyad: offspring of puff-blowing mothers showed the behavior, while the offspring of non- puff-blowing mothers did not. These results strongly support the role mothers play in the acquisition of novel skills and vertical social transmission. Furthermore, they suggest that behaviors, which provide a direct benefit to individuals, have a high chance of social transmission while the loss of benefits can result in the extinction of behaviors.

Assessment of agricultural biomass potential to electricity generation in Riau Province

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papilo, P.; Kusumanto, I.; Kunaifi, K.

2017-05-01

Utilization of biomass as a source of electrical power is one potential solution that can be developed in order to increase of the electrification ratio and to Achieve the national energy security. However, now it is still difficult, to Determine the amount of potential energy that can be used as an alternative power generation. Therefore, as a preliminary step to assess the feasibility of biomass development as a power generation source, an analysis of potential resources are required, especially from some of the main commodities, both of residues of agriculture and plantation. This study aims to assessing the potential of biomass-based supply from unutilized resources that can be Obtained from the residues of agricultural and plantations sectors, such as rice straw and rice husk; Dry straw and chaff of rice; corn stalks and cobs; stalks of cassava; and fiber, shell, empty fruit Bunches, kernels and liquid wastes in the palm oil factories. More research is focused on the theoretical energy potential measurements using a statistical approach which has been developed by Biomass Energy Europe (BEE). Results of the assessment has been done and showed that the total theoretical biomass energy that can be produced is equal to 77,466,754.8 Gj year -1. Theoretically, this potential is equivalent to generate electricityof year 21,518,542.8 MWh -1.

Methyl jasmonate as an allelopathic agent: sagebrush inhibits germination of a neighboring tobacco, Nicotiana attenuata.

PubMed

Preston, Catherine A; Betts, Hazel; Baldwi, Ian T

2002-11-01

Artemisia tridentata ssp. tridentata is the dominant and defining shrub in the Great Basin Desert, with well-documented allelopathic tendencies that have generally been ascribed to its most abundantly released secondary metabolites. However, as a minor component, sagebrush releases a highly biologically active substance, methyljasmonate (MeJA), which is known to function as both a germination inhibitor and promoter in laboratory studies. Nicotiana attenuata is a tobacco species native to the Great Basin Desert and grows in newly burned juniper-sagebrush habitats for 2-3 yr following a fire. With a combination of field and laboratory studies, we examined the role of MeJA release from sagebrush by both air and water transport in inhibiting N. attenuata seed germination. We demonstrated that sagebrush interacts allelopathically with the seed bank of N. attenuata through its release of MeJA. In the field, seeds buried 0-40 cm from sagebrush plants for 4 months in net bags had significantly reduced germination compared to seeds buried similarly but protected in plastic bags. Moreover, germination on soils collected from underneath sagebrush plants was reduced by 60% compared to seeds placed on soils collected between sagebrush plants or outside of the sagebrush population. Exposure to A. tridentata seeds and seedlings did not affect N. attenuata germination, suggesting that established sagebrush plants only influence the tobacco's seed bank. In the laboratory, exposure of seeds to sagebrush emissions resulted in germination delays of up to 6 d. Exposure to volatile and aqueous MeJA also inhibited germination of N. attenuata seeds at quantities that are released naturally by sagebrush: 3.5 microg/hr and 1.12 microg/seed cup (56 ng/seed), respectively. A. tridentata seeds were significantly more resistant to MeJA, being inhibited at 336 microg MeJA (16.8 microg/seed), 300 times greater than the level of aqueous MeJA required to inhibit N. attenuata seeds. MeJA inhibited N. attenuata germination regardless of the seed's dormancy state and the specific epimer (trans- or cis-) of MeJA. Germination on sagebrush chaff that had been heated to reduce MeJA content was negatively correlated with the amount of MeJA remaining in the chaff. Germination of a nondormant, conspecific tobacco, N. trigonophylla, which grows in the same area but is not associated with fire, is less sensitive than N. attenuata to the extracts of sagebrush litter, but similarly sensitive to MeJA. Additionally, four of five other tobacco species that are not known to be associated with sagebrush are less sensitive to MeJA, suggesting an evolved sensitivity to MeJA. To determine the proportion of germination inhibition of a sagebrush extract that could be attributed to MeJA, we serially diluted sagebrush extracts with water and restored the quantity of MeJA of the original extract by adding appropriate quantities of synthetic MeJA; 16-60% of the inhibitory activity of the original extract could be attributed to the MeJA. We conclude that MeJA release from sagebrush plays an allelopathic role for N. attenuata seed banks, but other unidentified compounds are also involved.

Molybdenum deprivation, purine ingestion and an astrocyte-associated motor neurone syndrome in sheep: assumed clinical effects of inosine.

PubMed

Bourke, Ca

2015-03-01

An astrocyte-associated motor neurone syndrome was produced in molybdenum-deprived sheep fed xanthosine. Mo-deprived sheep fed inosine, adenosine or guanosine would be also expected to develop astrocyte-associated motor neurone syndromes, because all these purine nucleosides can act as neuromodulators and all depend on the Mo-associated enzyme xanthine oxidase-dehydrogenase for their catabolism. To investigate the relationship between inosine ingestion and low Mo concentration, eight sheep were fed lucerne chaff with a Mo value <0.10 ppm and the Mo antagonist, sodium tungstate, for 21 weeks, with inosine (35 mg/kg/day) fed for the last 18 of these weeks. This clinical study was uncontrolled. An astrocyte-associated motor neurone syndrome was produced in three sheep 18-27 months later. It was characterised by diaphragmatic, laryngeal, lingual and pharyngeal muscle weakness. The diaphragmatic muscle weakness was the most severe and potentially lethal. These findings suggest that purinergic neuromodulation of respiration, vocalisation and swallowing is different to that of limb movement. The syndrome produced, and assumed to be caused by the treatment given, has not been reported in livestock. A similar syndrome is seen in human motor neurone disease, but not in equine motor neurone disease, and this is consistent with it being an upper, not a lower, motor neurone effect. © 2015 Australian Veterinary Association.

Fate and Transformation of CuO Nanoparticles in the Soil-Rice System during the Life Cycle of Rice Plants.

PubMed

Peng, Cheng; Xu, Chen; Liu, Qinglin; Sun, Lijuan; Luo, Yongming; Shi, Jiyan

2017-05-02

Agricultural soil is gradually becoming a primary sink for metal-based nanoparticles (MNPs). The uptake and accumulation of MNPs by crops may contaminate food chain and pose unexpected risks for human health. Here, we investigated the fate and transformation of CuO nanoparticles (NPs) in the soil-rice system during the rice lifecycle. The results show that at the maturation stage, 1000 mg/kg CuO NPs significantly decreased redox potential by 202.75 mV but enhanced electrical conductivity by 497.07 mS/cm compared to controls. Moreover, the bioavailability of highest CuO NPs in the soil was reduced by 69.84% along with the plant growth but then was significantly increased by 165% after drying-wetting cycles. Meanwhile, CuO and Cu combined with humic acid were transformed to Cu 2 S and Cu associated with goethite by X-ray absorption near edge structure analysis. Additionally, CuO NPs had an acute negative effect on the plant growth than bulk particles, which dramatically reduced the fresh weight of grains to 6.51% of controls. Notably, CuO NPs were found to be translocated from soil to plant especially to the chaff and promoted the Cu accumulation in the aleurone layer of rice using micro X-ray fluorescence technique, but could not reach the polished rice.

Sorting through the chaff, nDNA gene trees for phylogenetic inference and hybrid identification of annual sunflowers (Helianthus sect. Helianthus).

PubMed

Moody, Michael L; Rieseberg, Loren H

2012-07-01

The annual sunflowers (Helianthus sect. Helianthus) present a formidable challenge for phylogenetic inference because of ancient hybrid speciation, recent introgression, and suspected issues with deep coalescence. Here we analyze sequence data from 11 nuclear DNA (nDNA) genes for multiple genotypes of species within the section to (1) reconstruct the phylogeny of this group, (2) explore the utility of nDNA gene trees for detecting hybrid speciation and introgression; and (3) test an empirical method of hybrid identification based on the phylogenetic congruence of nDNA gene trees from tightly linked genes. We uncovered considerable topological heterogeneity among gene trees with or without three previously identified hybrid species included in the analyses, as well as a general lack of reciprocal monophyly of species. Nonetheless, partitioned Bayesian analyses provided strong support for the reciprocal monophyly of all species except H. annuus (0.89 PP), the most widespread and abundant annual sunflower. Previous hypotheses of relationships among taxa were generally strongly supported (1.0 PP), except among taxa typically associated with H. annuus, apparently due to the paraphyly of the latter in all gene trees. While the individual nDNA gene trees provided a useful means for detecting recent hybridization, identification of ancient hybridization was problematic for all ancient hybrid species, even when linkage was considered. We discuss biological factors that affect the efficacy of phylogenetic methods for hybrid identification.

Nonceliac gluten sensitivity.

PubMed

Fasano, Alessio; Sapone, Anna; Zevallos, Victor; Schuppan, Detlef

2015-05-01

During the past decade there has been an impressive increase in popularity of the gluten-free diet (GFD)-now the most trendy alimentary habit in the United States and other countries. According to recent surveys, as many as 100 million Americans will consume gluten-free products within a year. Operating under the concept that the GFD benefits only individuals with celiac disease, health care professionals have struggled to separate the wheat from the chaff; there are claims that eliminating gluten from the diet increases health and helps with weight loss, or even that gluten can be harmful to every human being. However, apart from unfounded trends, a disorder related to ingestion of gluten or gluten-containing cereals, namely nonceliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), has resurfaced in the literature, fueling a debate on the appropriateness of the GFD for people without celiac disease. Although there is clearly a fad component to the popularity of the GFD, there is also undisputable and increasing evidence for NCGS. However, we require a better understanding of the clinical presentation of NCGS, as well as its pathogenesis, epidemiology, management, and role in conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, and autoimmunity. Before we can begin to identify and manage NCGS, there must be agreement on the nomenclature and definition of the disorder based on proper peer-reviewed scientific information. We review the most recent findings on NCGS and outline directions to dissipate some of the confusion related to this disorder. Copyright © 2015 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In vivo wound-healing efficacy and antioxidant activity of Achyranthes aspera in experimental burns.

PubMed

Barua, Chandana Choudhury; Talukdar, Archana; Begum, Shameem Ara; Pathak, Debesh Chandra; Sarma, Dilip Kumar; Borah, Rumi Saikia; Gupta, Asheesh

2012-07-01

The floral richness of the North-East Indian region cannot be neglected in context to its medicinal importance. Achyranthes aspera Linn. (Amaranthaceae; Prickly Chaff flower) is an indigenous plant species of this region. Although the local traditional healers have ethnomedical knowledge on the use of this plant, there is no scientific study on wound-healing activity of this plant. The healing efficacy of methanol leaf extract of A. aspera (MEAA) in granulation tissue of burn wound and its antioxidant activity are investigated. Methanol extract of leaves of A. aspera was used for compounding 5% (w/w) ointment, which was applied topically twice daily in experimental burn wound in rats. Healing potential was assessed by rate of wound contraction, antioxidant and biochemical assay which was supported by gelatin zymography and histopathology. In the present study, 5% ointment of A. aspera showed significant (p < 0.05) wound healing, which was evident by wound contraction, elevation of various antioxidant enzymes viz. SOD, catalase, vitamin C and prohealing and biochemical parameters like hydroxyproline and protein content than the control animals. Up-regulated expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and 9) was also observed by gelatin zymography. Histopathological examination of the granulation tissues in the A. aspera-treated animals showed collagen deposition, fibroblast proliferation and formation of epidermis. The methanol leaf extract of A. aspera showed excellent wound-healing activities which has great potential for development of plant-based product.

Cognitive skills assessment during robot-assisted surgery: separating the wheat from the chaff.

PubMed

Guru, Khurshid A; Esfahani, Ehsan T; Raza, Syed J; Bhat, Rohit; Wang, Katy; Hammond, Yana; Wilding, Gregory; Peabody, James O; Chowriappa, Ashirwad J

2015-01-01

To investigate the utility of cognitive assessment during robot-assisted surgery (RAS) to define skills in terms of cognitive engagement, mental workload, and mental state; while objectively differentiating between novice and expert surgeons. In all, 10 surgeons with varying operative experience were assigned to beginner (BG), combined competent and proficient (CPG), and expert (EG) groups based on the Dreyfus model. The participants performed tasks for basic, intermediate and advanced skills on the da Vinci Surgical System. Participant performance was assessed using both tool-based and cognitive metrics. Tool-based metrics showed significant differences between the BG vs CPG and the BG vs EG, in basic skills. While performing intermediate skills, there were significant differences only on the instrument-to-instrument collisions between the BG vs CPG (2.0 vs 0.2, P = 0.028), and the BG vs EG (2.0 vs 0.1, P = 0.018). There were no significant differences between the CPG and EG for both basic and intermediate skills. However, using cognitive metrics, there were significant differences between all groups for the basic and intermediate skills. In advanced skills, there were no significant differences between the CPG and the EG except time (1116 vs 599.6 s), using tool-based metrics. However, cognitive metrics revealed significant differences between both groups. Cognitive assessment of surgeons may aid in defining levels of expertise performing complex surgical tasks once competence is achieved. Cognitive assessment may be used as an adjunct to the traditional methods for skill assessment during RAS. © 2014 The Authors. BJU International © 2014 BJU International.

Optimization of Methane Gas Formation Rate with The Addition of EM4 Starter-made from Tofu Liquid Waste and Husk Rice Waste Using Biogas Reactor-Fixed Dome in Langensari West Ungaran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arifan, Fahmi; Muhammad, Fuad; Winarni, Sri; Rama Devara, Hafizh; Hanum, Latifah

2018-02-01

Indonesia is a country that has abundant energy resources, namely oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and so forth. Biogas is an alternative fuel that can be used as a substitute for primary fuel. The term biogas is already familiar to the people, it is because biogas has usefulness as a vehicle fuel, domestic (cooking), and generate electricity. Cow dung has a value of C / N ratio is large enough that 18. Rice husk has a C / N ratio is sufficient High temperatures of 38.9. EM-4 (effective microorganism) is a bacterial culture which is usually used as an activator. In the manufacture of biogas from waste fluids out and chaff has the advantage because the content of the C / N is high enough. The composition of the raw materials used are liquid wastes out of 5 kg and 1 kg of husk-em with the addition of 4500 ml and the resulting calorific value of 1047.9 A fermentation time for 9 days. Ph maintained in neutral or alkaline conditions, namely 7-7.5, because the effectiveness of the methane formation is highly dependent on pH wherein the microorganism will grow and thrive in neutral. The test results has been done is the color of the flame and the time at yield is good enough where the color of the flame produced at day to9 blue with time for 40 seconds.

Separating the wheat from the chaff: mitigating the effects of noise in a plastome phylogenomic data set from Pinus L. (Pinaceae)

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Through next-generation sequencing, the amount of sequence data potentially available for phylogenetic analyses has increased exponentially in recent years. Simultaneously, the risk of incorporating ‘noisy’ data with misleading phylogenetic signal has also increased, and may disproportionately influence the topology of weakly supported nodes and lineages featuring rapid radiations and/or elevated rates of evolution. Results We investigated the influence of phylogenetic noise in large data sets by applying two fundamental strategies, variable site removal and long-branch exclusion, to the phylogenetic analysis of a full plastome alignment of 107 species of Pinus and six Pinaceae outgroups. While high overall phylogenetic resolution resulted from inclusion of all data, three historically recalcitrant nodes remained conflicted with previous analyses. Close investigation of these nodes revealed dramatically different responses to data removal. Whereas topological resolution and bootstrap support for two clades peaked with removal of highly variable sites, the third clade resolved most strongly when all sites were included. Similar trends were observed using long-branch exclusion, but patterns were neither as strong nor as clear. When compared to previous phylogenetic analyses of nuclear loci and morphological data, the most highly supported topologies seen in Pinus plastome analysis are congruent for the two clades gaining support from variable site removal and long-branch exclusion, but in conflict for the clade with highest support from the full data set. Conclusions These results suggest that removal of misleading signal in phylogenomic datasets can result not only in increased resolution for poorly supported nodes, but may serve as a tool for identifying erroneous yet highly supported topologies. For Pinus chloroplast genomes, removal of variable sites appears to be more effective than long-branch exclusion for clarifying phylogenetic hypotheses. PMID:22731878

Metabolic response to dietary fibre composition in horses.

PubMed

Brøkner, C; Austbø, D; Næsset, J A; Blache, D; Bach Knudsen, K E; Tauson, A H

2016-07-01

The hypothesis for this study was that a higher dietary proportion of soluble fibre would result in stable and constant plasma metabolite and regulatory hormone concentrations. The study was a 4×4 Latin Square design with a sequence of 17 days adaptation to the ration followed by 8 sampling days. The feed rations consisted of only timothy hay (H), hay plus molassed sugar beet pulp combined with either whole oats (OB) or barley (BB) and hay plus a loose chaff-based concentrate (M). Four horses were fitted with permanent caecal cannulas and liquid caecal content was withdrawn manually and blood was drawn from the jugular vein at 0, 3 and 9 h postprandial. The horses were exercised daily at medium level for about 1 h. Samples were analysed for short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and metabolic traits. Caecal SCFA and propionic acid concentrations increased with increased dietary starch and soluble fibre. The diet highest in soluble fibre (M) resulted in the highest plasma glucose and insulin concentrations in the morning, which then remained stable and constant throughout the day. A strong interaction (P<0.01) between time and diet was measured for plasma urea, glucose, insulin and leptin. The greatest variations in plasma glycaemic and insulinaemic responses were associated with the cereal grain diets (OB and BB). There were indications of a negative energy balance, which was reflected in a significantly higher plasma β-hydroxybutyrate concentration and a numerically higher non-esterified fatty acid concentration. In conclusion, this study found that inclusion of soluble fibre resulted in increased total caecal SCFA and propionic acid concentrations. This consequently resulted in stable and constant plasma glycaemic and insulinaemic responses. Diets with a high content of soluble fibre provided enough energy for horses at medium work level.

A data base of crop nutrient use, water use, and carbon dioxide exchange in a 2O square meter growth chamber: I. Wheat as a case study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wheeler, R. M.; Berry, W. L.; Mackowiak, C.; Corey, K. A.; Sager, J. C.; Heeb, M. M.; Knott, W. M.

1993-01-01

A data set is given describing the daily nutrient uptake, gas exchange, environmental conditions, and carbon (C), and nutrient partitioning at harvest for the entire canopy and root system of a wheat crop (Triticum aestivum, cv. Yecora Rojo). The data were obtained from a 20 m2 stand of wheat plants grown from planting to maturity in a closed, controlled environment, and include daily nutrient uptake [macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S); and micronutrients, iron (Fe), boron (B), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and molybdenum (Mo)], canopy carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange rates, and transpiration. Environmental factors such as relative humidity, air temperature, nutrient solution temperature, pH and electrical conductivity, and photoperiod were controlled in the chamber to specific set points. A detailed description of biomass yield for each of the 64 plant growth trays comprising the 20 m2 of growth area is also provided, and includes dry weights of grain, straw, chaff, and roots, along with the concentration of nutrients in different plant tissues and the percent carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To our knowledge, this information represents one of the most extensive data sets available for a canopy of wheat grown from seed to maturity under controlled environmental and nutritional conditions, and thus may provide useful information for model development and validation. A methods section is included to qualify any assumptions that might be required for the use of the data in plant growth models, along with a daily event calendar indicating when adjustments in set points and occasional equipment or sensor failures occurred.

A Data Base of Crop Nutrient Use, Water Use, and Carbon Dioxide Exchange in a 20 Square Meter Growth Chamber. Part 1; Wheat as a Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wheeler, Raymond M.; Berry, Wade L.; Mackowiak, Cheryl; Corey, Kenneth A.; Sager, John C.; Heeb, Margaret M.; Knott, William M.

1993-01-01

A data set is given describing the daily nutrient uptake, gas exchange, environmental conditions, and carbon (C), and nutrient partitioning at harvest for the entire canopy and root system of a wheat crop (Triticum aestivum, cv. Yecora Rojo). The data were obtained from a 20 sq m stand of wheat plants grown from planting to maturity in a closed, controlled environment, and include daily nutrient uptake [macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S); and micronutrients, iron (Fe), boron (B), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and molybdenum (Mo)], canopy carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange rates, and transpiration. Environmental factors such as relative humidity, air temperature, nutrient solution temperature, pH and electrical conductivity, and photoperiod were controlled in the chamber to specific set points. A detailed description of biomass yield for each of the 64 plant growth trays comprising the 20 sq m of growth area is also provided, and includes dry weights of grain, straw, chaff, and roots, along with the concentration of nutrients in different plant tissues and the percent carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To our knowledge, this information represents one of the most extensive data sets available for a canopy of wheat grown from seed to maturity under controlled environmental and nutritional conditions, and thus may provide useful information for model development and validation. A methods section is included to qualify any assumptions that might he required for the use of the data in plant growth models, along with a daily event calendar indicating when adjustments in set points and occasional equipment or sensor failures occurred.

Separating the Wheat From the Chaff: An Evaluation of Readability, Quality, and Accuracy of Online Health Information for Treatment of Peyronie Disease.

PubMed

Bompastore, Nicholas J; Cisu, Theodore; Holoch, Peter

2018-04-30

To characterize available information about Peyronie disease online and evaluate its readability, quality, accuracy, and respective associations with HONcode certification and website category. The search term "Peyronie disease" was queried on 3 major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo) and the first 50 search results on each search engine were assessed. All websites were categorized as institutional or reference, commercial, charitable, personal or patient support, or alternative medicine, and cross-referenced with the Health on the Net (HON) Foundation. Websites that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed for readability using 3 validated algorithms, for quality using the DISCERN instrument, and for accuracy by a fellowship-trained urologist. On average, online health information about treatment of Peyronie disease is written at or above the 11th grade level, exceeding the current reading guidelines of 6th-8th grade. The mean total DISCERN score for all website categories was 50.44 (standard deviation [SD] 11.94), the upper range of "fair" quality. The mean accuracy score of all online Peyronie treatment information was 2.76 (SD 1.23), corresponding to only 25%-50% accurate information. Both institutional or reference and HONcode-certified websites were of "good" quality (53.44, SD 11.64 and 60.86, SD 8.74, respectively). Institutional or reference websites were 50%-75% accurate (3.13, SD 1.20). Most of the online Peyronie disease treatment information is of mediocre quality and accuracy. The information from institutional or reference websites is of better quality and accuracy, and the information from HONcode-certified websites is of better quality. The mean readability of all websites exceeds the reading ability of most US adults by several grade levels. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Influence of crop rotation and tillage intensity on soil physical properties and functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krümmelbein, Julia

2013-04-01

Soil tillage intensity can vary concerning tillage depth, frequency, power input into the soil and degree of soil turn-over. Conventional tillage systems where a plough is regularly used to turn over the soil can be differentiated from reduced tillage systems without ploughing but with loosening the upper soil and no tillage systems. Between conventional tillage and no tillage is a wide range of more or less reduced tillage systems. In our case the different tillage intensities are not induced by different agricultural machinery or techniques, but result from varying crop rotations with more or less perennial crops and therefore lower or higher tillage frequency. Our experimental area constitutes of quite unstructured substrates, partly heavily compacted. The development of a functioning soil structure and accumulation of nutrients and organic matter are of high importance. Three different crop rotations induce varying tillage intensities and frequencies. The first crop rotation (Alfalfa monoculture) has only experienced seed bed preparation once and subsequently is wheeled once a year to cut and chaff the biomass. The second crop rotation contains perennial and annual crops and has therefore been tilled more often, while the third crop rotation consists only of annual crops with annual seedbed preparation. Our results show that reduced tillage intensity/frequency combined with the intense root growth of Alfalfa creates the most favourable soil physical state of the substrate compared to increased tillage and lower root growth intensity of the other crop rotations. Soil tillage disturbs soil structure development, especially when the substrate is mechanically unstable as in our case. For such problematic locations it is recommendable to reduce tillage intensity and/or frequency to allow the development of soil structure enhanced by root growth and thereby the accumulation of organic matter and nutrients within the rooting zone.

The Florida Harvester Ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, Relies on Germination to Consume Large Seeds

PubMed Central

Kwapich, Christina L.

2016-01-01

The Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, is one of many ant species and genera that stores large numbers of seeds in damp, underground chambers for later consumption. A comparison of the sizes of seeds recovered from storage chambers with those of seed husks discarded following consumption revealed that the used seeds are far smaller than stored seeds. This difference in use-rate was confirmed in field and laboratory colonies by offering marked seeds of various sizes and monitoring the appearance of size-specific chaff. Because foragers collect a range of seed sizes but only open small seeds, large seeds accumulate, forming 70% or more of the weight of seed stores. Major workers increase the rates at which small and medium seeds are opened, but do not increase the size range of opened seeds. Experiments limiting ant access to portions of natural seed chambers showed that seeds germinate during storage, but that the ants rapidly remove them. When offered alongside non germinating seeds, germinating seeds were preferentially fed to larvae. The rate of germination during the annual cycle was determined by both burial in artificial chambers at various depths and under four laboratory temperatures. The germination rate depends upon the species of seed, the soil/laboratory temperature and/or the elapsed time. The seasonal soil temperature cycle generated germination patterns that vary with the mix of locally-available seeds. Taken together, exploitation of germination greatly increases the resources available to the ants in space and time. While the largest seeds may have the nutritional value of 15 small seeds, the inability of workers to open large seeds at will precludes them from rapid use during catastrophic events. The harvester ant’s approach to seed harvesting is therefore two-pronged, with both immediate and delayed payoffs arising from the tendency to forage for a wide variety of seeds sizes. PMID:27893844

Neuropathological Staging of Brain Pathology in Sporadic Parkinson's disease: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff.

PubMed

Braak, Heiko; Del Tredici, Kelly

2017-01-01

A relatively small number of especially susceptible nerve cell types within multiple neurotransmitter systems of the human central, peripheral, and enteric nervous systems (CNS, PNS, ENS) become involved in the degenerative process underlying sporadic Parkinson's disease (sPD). The six-stage model we proposed for brain pathology related to sPD (Neurobiol Aging 2003) was a retrospective study of incidental and clinically diagnosed cases performed on unconventionally thick tissue sections (100 μm) from a large number of brain regions.The staging model emphasized what we perceived to be a sequential development of increasing degrees of Lewy pathology in anatomically interconnected regions together with the loss of aminergic projection neurons in, but not limited to, the locus coeruleus and substantia nigra. The same weight was assigned to axonal and somatodendritic Lewy pathology, and the olfactory bulb was included for the first time in a sPD staging system. After years of research, it now appears that the earliest lesions could develop at nonnigral (dopamine agonist nonresponsive) sites, where the surrounding environment is potentially hostile: the olfactory bulb and, possibly, the ENS. The current lack of knowledge regarding the development of Lewy pathology within the peripheral autonomic nervous system, however, means that alternative extra-CNS sites of origin cannot be disregarded as possible candidates. The PD staging system not only caused controversy but contributed a framework for (1) assessing pathology in the spinal cord, ENS, and PNS in relationship to that evolving in the brain, (2) defining prodromal disease and cohorts of at-risk individuals, (3) developing potential prognostic biomarkers for very early disease, (4) testing novel hypotheses and experimental models of α-synuclein propagation and disease progression, and (5) finding causally-oriented therapies that intervene before the substantia nigra becomes involved. The identification of new disease mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels indicates that physical contacts (transsynaptic) and transneuronal transmission between vulnerable nerve cells are somehow crucial to the pathogenesis of sPD.

The science, technology, and politics of ballistic missile defense

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coyle, Philip E.

America's missile defense systems are deployed at home and abroad. This includes the Groundbased Missile Defense (GMD) system in Alaska and California, the Phased Adaptive Approach in Europe (EPAA), and regional systems in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately these systems lack workable architectures, and many of the required elements either don't work or are missing. Major review and reconsideration is needed of all elements of these systems. GMD performance in tests has gotten worse with time, when it ought to be getting better. A lack of political support is not to blame as the DoD spends about $10 billionmore » per year, and proposes to add about $5 billion over the next five years. Russia objects to the EPAA as a threat to its ICBM forces, and to the extensive deployment of U.S. military forces in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, once part of the Soviet Union. Going forward the U.S. should keep working with Russia whose cooperation will be key to diplomatic gains in the Middle East and elsewhere. Meanwhile, America's missile defenses face an enduring set of issues, especially target discrimination in the face of attacks designed to overwhelm the defenses, stage separation debris, chaff, decoys, and stealth. Dealing with target discrimination while also replacing, upgrading, or adding to the many elements of U.S. missiles defenses presents daunting budget priorities. A new look at the threat is warranted, and whether the U.S. needs to consider every nation that possesses even short-range missiles a threat to America. The proliferation of missiles of all sizes around the world is a growing problem, but expecting U.S. missile defenses to deal with all those missiles everywhere is unrealistic, and U.S. missile defenses, effective or not, are justifying more and more offensive missiles.« less

The Florida Harvester Ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, Relies on Germination to Consume Large Seeds.

PubMed

Tschinkel, Walter R; Kwapich, Christina L

2016-01-01

The Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, is one of many ant species and genera that stores large numbers of seeds in damp, underground chambers for later consumption. A comparison of the sizes of seeds recovered from storage chambers with those of seed husks discarded following consumption revealed that the used seeds are far smaller than stored seeds. This difference in use-rate was confirmed in field and laboratory colonies by offering marked seeds of various sizes and monitoring the appearance of size-specific chaff. Because foragers collect a range of seed sizes but only open small seeds, large seeds accumulate, forming 70% or more of the weight of seed stores. Major workers increase the rates at which small and medium seeds are opened, but do not increase the size range of opened seeds. Experiments limiting ant access to portions of natural seed chambers showed that seeds germinate during storage, but that the ants rapidly remove them. When offered alongside non germinating seeds, germinating seeds were preferentially fed to larvae. The rate of germination during the annual cycle was determined by both burial in artificial chambers at various depths and under four laboratory temperatures. The germination rate depends upon the species of seed, the soil/laboratory temperature and/or the elapsed time. The seasonal soil temperature cycle generated germination patterns that vary with the mix of locally-available seeds. Taken together, exploitation of germination greatly increases the resources available to the ants in space and time. While the largest seeds may have the nutritional value of 15 small seeds, the inability of workers to open large seeds at will precludes them from rapid use during catastrophic events. The harvester ant's approach to seed harvesting is therefore two-pronged, with both immediate and delayed payoffs arising from the tendency to forage for a wide variety of seeds sizes.

The science, technology, and politics of ballistic missile defense

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coyle, Philip E.

2014-05-01

America's missile defense systems are deployed at home and abroad. This includes the Groundbased Missile Defense (GMD) system in Alaska and California, the Phased Adaptive Approach in Europe (EPAA), and regional systems in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately these systems lack workable architectures, and many of the required elements either don't work or are missing. Major review and reconsideration is needed of all elements of these systems. GMD performance in tests has gotten worse with time, when it ought to be getting better. A lack of political support is not to blame as the DoD spends about 10 billion per year, and proposes to add about 5 billion over the next five years. Russia objects to the EPAA as a threat to its ICBM forces, and to the extensive deployment of U.S. military forces in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, once part of the Soviet Union. Going forward the U.S. should keep working with Russia whose cooperation will be key to diplomatic gains in the Middle East and elsewhere. Meanwhile, America's missile defenses face an enduring set of issues, especially target discrimination in the face of attacks designed to overwhelm the defenses, stage separation debris, chaff, decoys, and stealth. Dealing with target discrimination while also replacing, upgrading, or adding to the many elements of U.S. missiles defenses presents daunting budget priorities. A new look at the threat is warranted, and whether the U.S. needs to consider every nation that possesses even short-range missiles a threat to America. The proliferation of missiles of all sizes around the world is a growing problem, but expecting U.S. missile defenses to deal with all those missiles everywhere is unrealistic, and U.S. missile defenses, effective or not, are justifying more and more offensive missiles.

Immobilization of Cd in landfill-leachate-contaminated soil with cow manure compost as soil conditioners: A laboratory study.

PubMed

Liao, Zhuwei; Wang, Jia; Wan, Rui; Xi, Shuang; Chen, Zhuqi; Chen, Zhulei; Yu, Yingjian; Long, Sijie; Wang, Huabin

2016-12-01

Introducing cow manure compost as an amendment in landfill-leachate-contaminated soils is proved to be an effective technique for the immobilization of Cd in this study. Landfill-leachate-contaminated soil was collected from an unlined landfill in China and amended with a different blending quantity of cow manure compost (0, 12, 24, 36, and 48 g per 200 g soil), which was made by mixing cow manure and chaff at a ratio of 1/1 and maturing for 6 months. pH values of five different blending quantity mixtures increased by 0.2-0.4, and the organic matter levels increased by 2.5-7%, during a remediation period of 5 weeks. Four fractions of Cd named exchangeable Cd, reducible Cd, oxidizable Cd, and residual Cd in soil were respectively analyzed by a sequential extraction procedure. Introducing the cow manure compost application resulted in more than 40% lower exchangeable Cd but a higher concentration of oxidizable Cd in soils, and mass balance results showed nearly no Cd absorption by applied material, indicating that transformation of exchangeable Cd into oxidization forms was the main mechanism of Cd immobilization when cow manure compost was used as an amendment. The Pearson correlation showed that increasing of pH values significantly improved the efficiency of Cd immobilization, with a correlation coefficiency of 0.940 (p < 0.05). This is the first attempt at heavy metal immobilization in landfill-leachate-contaminated soil by cow manure compost, and findings of this work can be integrated to guide the application. Addition of cow manure compost (CMC) was effective in reducing exchangeable Cd in landfill-leachate-contaminated soils (LLCS). The immobilization effect of Cd was mainly assigned to the redistribution of labile soil Cd. Organic matter (OM) and pH value increased with CMC application. The pH values were more sensitive to Cd immobilization efficiency. It was proved that CMC can be safely and effectively used for the restoration of LLCS.

Rapid Phenotyping Adult Plant Resistance to Stem Rust in Wheat Grown under Controlled Conditions.

PubMed

Riaz, Adnan; T Hickey, Lee

2017-01-01

Stem rust (SR) or black rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici is one of the most common diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crops globally. Among the various control measures, the most efficient and sustainable approach is the deployment of genetically resistant cultivars. Traditionally, wheat breeding programs deployed genetic resistance in cultivars, but unknowingly this is often underpinned by a single seedling resistance gene, which is readily overcome by the pathogen. Nowadays, adult plant resistance (APR) is a widely adopted form of rust resistance because more durable mechanisms often underpin it. However, only a handful of SR APR genes are available, so breeders currently strive to combine seedling and APR genes. Phenotyping adult wheat plants for resistance to SR typically involves evaluation in the field. But establishing a rust nursery can be challenging, and screening is limited to once a year. This slows down research efforts to isolate new APR genes and breeding of genetically resistant cultivars.In this study, we report a protocol for rapid evaluation of adult wheat plants for resistance to stem rust. We demonstrate the technique by evaluating a panel of 16 wheat genotypes consisting of near isogenic lines (NILs) for known Sr genes (i.e., Sr2, Sr33, Sr45, Sr50, Sr55, Sr57, and Sr58) and three landraces carrying uncharacterized APR from the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR). The method can be completed in just 10 weeks and involves two inoculations: first conducted at seedling stage and a second at the adult stage (using the same plants). The technique can detect APR, such as that conferred by APR gene Sr2, along with pseudo-black chaff (the morphological marker). Phenotyping can be conducted throughout the year, and is fast and resource efficient. Further, the phenotyping method can be applied to screen breeding populations or germplasm accessions using local or exotic races of SR.

Communicating Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, Nicholas

2009-10-01

Introduction: what this book is about and why you might want to read it; Prologue: three orphans share a common paternity: professional science communication, popular journalism, and literary fiction are not as separate as they seem; Part I. Professional Science Communication: 1. Spreading the word: the endless struggle to publish professional science; 2. Walk like an Egyptian: the alien feeling of professional science writing; 3. The future's bright? Professional science communication in the age of the internet; 4. Counting the horse's teeth: professional standards in science's barter economy; 5. Separating the wheat from the chaff: peer review on trial; Part II. Science for the Public: What Science Do People Need and How Might They Get It?: 6. The Public Understanding of Science (PUS) movement and its problems; 7. Public engagement with science and technology (PEST): fine principle, difficult practice; 8. Citizen scientists? Democratic input into science policy; 9. Teaching and learning science in schools: implications for popular science communication; Part III. Popular Science Communication: The Press and Broadcasting: 10. What every scientist should know about mass media; 11. What every scientist should know about journalists; 12. The influence of new media; 13. How the media represents science; 14. How should science journalists behave?; Part IV. The Origins of Science in Cultural Context: Five Historic Dramas: 15. A terrible storm in Wittenberg: natural knowledge through sorcery and evil; 16. A terrible storm in the Mediterranean: controlling nature with white magic and religion; 17. Thieving magpies: the subtle art of false projecting; 18. Foolish virtuosi: natural philosophy emerges as a distinct discipline but many cannot take it seriously; 19. Is scientific knowledge 'true' or should it just be 'truthfully' deployed?; Part V. Science in Literature: 20. Science and the Gothic: the three big nineteenth-century monster stories; 21. Science fiction: serious literature of ideas or low-grade entertainment?; 22. Science in British literary fiction; 23. Science on stage: the politics and ethics of science in cultural and educational contexts.

Li Meixiang leads women to become well-off. Integrated approach.

PubMed

Gao, M

1996-02-01

This article describes the experiences of a family planning worker in Meihekou City, Jilin Province, in implementing the integrated approach to family planning. Madam Li Meixiang is credited with being an outstanding example in improving program implementation. The new approach has helped people accept a smaller family size norm. Madam Li in 1981 married and shared in the responsibility of supporting a six-member family and raising her own daughter. Their success in eliminating debt and improving their standard of living is attributed to their efforts to grow rice on 1.3 hectares of land, running a small grain-processing factory in the village, and raising pigs who were fed the chaff produced from processed rice. Li invested in a truck and the family moved into a larger house with modern conveniences. The Li family was the first to rise from poverty to a well-off position in the community. Li became interested in family planning issues after an IEC presentation in the village. In 1990 Madam Li was elected head of the women's association of the village and assumed leadership of family planning activities. Her objective was to teach other women about the advantages of a small family and to offer advice in solving economic problems. During the off-farming season Madam Li worked to establish income generation activities for other women and acceptors. Li organized an village effort to shell walnuts for a local export and import company. About 30% of the village women were involved the first year, and almost 80% were involved in the past two years. The project showed villagers how ingenuity without any cash outlay could yield profits. Over 200 families join the project in the winter and receive an average income of over 2500 yuan. Madam Li has helped villagers obtain bank loans for small scale projects and given advice on how to increase profits.

Data Prospecting Framework - a new approach to explore "big data" in Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramachandran, R.; Rushing, J.; Lin, A.; Kuo, K.

2012-12-01

Due to advances in sensors, computation and storage, cost and effort required to produce large datasets have been significantly reduced. As a result, we are seeing a proliferation of large-scale data sets being assembled in almost every science field, especially in geosciences. Opportunities to exploit the "big data" are enormous as new hypotheses can be generated by combining and analyzing large amounts of data. However, such a data-driven approach to science discovery assumes that scientists can find and isolate relevant subsets from vast amounts of available data. Current Earth Science data systems only provide data discovery through simple metadata and keyword-based searches and are not designed to support data exploration capabilities based on the actual content. Consequently, scientists often find themselves downloading large volumes of data, struggling with large amounts of storage and learning new analysis technologies that will help them separate the wheat from the chaff. New mechanisms of data exploration are needed to help scientists discover the relevant subsets We present data prospecting, a new content-based data analysis paradigm to support data-intensive science. Data prospecting allows the researchers to explore big data in determining and isolating data subsets for further analysis. This is akin to geo-prospecting in which mineral sites of interest are determined over the landscape through screening methods. The resulting "data prospects" only provide an interaction with and feel for the data through first-look analytics; the researchers would still have to download the relevant datasets and analyze them deeply using their favorite analytical tools to determine if the datasets will yield new hypotheses. Data prospecting combines two traditional categories of data analysis, data exploration and data mining within the discovery step. Data exploration utilizes manual/interactive methods for data analysis such as standard statistical analysis and visualization, usually on small datasets. On the other hand, data mining utilizes automated algorithms to extract useful information. Humans guide these automated algorithms and specify algorithm parameters (training samples, clustering size, etc.). Data Prospecting combines these two approaches using high performance computing and the new techniques for efficient distributed file access.

Electromyographic evaluation of masseter muscle activity in horses fed (i) different types of roughage and (ii) maize after different hay allocations.

PubMed

Vervuert, I; Brüssow, N; Bochnia, M; Cuddeford, D; Coenen, M

2013-06-01

The aims of this study were to monitor electromyographic (EMG) activity of masseter muscle in healthy horses fed (i) different types of roughage and (ii) maize after different hay allocations. Four horses were offered the following three diets ad libitum: hay, haylage or straw/alfalfa chaff (SAC). In a second trial, four horses were fed cracked maize (CM) and hay in three different orders: (i) CM after a 12-h overnight fast; (ii) CM immediately after restricted hay intake (0.6 kg hay/100 kg BW); or 3) CM after hay intake ad libitum. The activity of the masseter muscle was determined by EMG (IED(®) ), and the following were measured: amplitude (muscle action potential = MAP, maximum voltage) and duration of MAP (s). The intake of hay or haylage was associated with intense masseter muscle activity (MAP: hay, 10 ± 1.7 V; haylage, 11 ± 3.3 V; and duration of MAP: hay, 0.31 ± 0.04 s; haylage, 0.30 ± 0.04 s). Similar intense chewing was measured for SAC (MAP 13 ± 3.8 V), although duration of the chewing cycle was relatively short (0.22 ± 0.03 s, diet p < 0.05), which is possibly related to the shorter fibre length. CM was consumed rapidly, with less intense masseter muscle activity (MAP 6.0 ± 1.5 V). Hay intake before CM did not affect chewing force of CM, but duration of chewing cycle was significantly prolonged by feeding hay ad libitum before CM was fed. The consumption of hay, haylage or SAC was associated with intensive masseter muscle activity that was likely to stimulate salivary flow rate. In contrast to roughage, concentrates like CM are consumed rapidly with less intensive masseter muscle activity. This situation is associated with a low salivary flow that may have an adverse effect on gastric function. © 2012 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

A comparative study of adoloscents' perceived stress and health outcomes among adolescent mothers and their infants in Lesotho.

PubMed

Yako, E M

2007-03-01

The purpose of this study was to compare perceived stress in general, stress due to pregnancy, and post partum complications between a group of unmarried adolescent first-time mothers and a group of married adolescent first-time mothers. Never-pregnant adolescents served as a comparison group on perceived stress. Health outcomes of infants of the two groups of adolescent mothers were also compared on birth weight, nutritional status (weight gain) and immunization status. The study design was non-experimental, comparative and descriptive. A convenience sample of dyads of 64 unmarried adolescent mothers and their infants, 64 married adolescents and their infants, and 64 high school students participated in this study. Data were collected in 3 hospitals, 2 health centres (clinics) and a high school in Lesotho. The differences between the three groups of adolescents in perceived stress, were determined using ANOVA. The t-test was used to determine the differences between the group of unmarried adolescent mothers and the group of married mothers on stress due to pregnancy. The difference in postpartum complications between these two groups of adolescent mothers was determined using Chi-square. The t-test was also used to determine differences in birth weight, nutritional status and immunization status between the group of infants of unmarried mothers and infants of married mothers. Findings of this study revealed significant differences in perceived stress between both groups of adolescent mothers and the group of never pregnant adolescents (p < .0001). The Chaffe' test revealed that never pregnant adolescents had lowest levels of perceived stress than both groups of adolescent mothers (p < .0001). Both groups of adolescent mothers had high levels of stress due to pregnancy and the difference between the two groups was non-significant. No differences were observed between infant health outcomes of unmarried mothers and infants of married mothers. The infants of both groups were generally healthy and the majority of them had appropriate type and doses of immunizations six weeks post birth. Adolescent mothers in the low lands of Lesotho perceive pregnancy to be a stressful event despite marriage. Therefore adolescents should be discourage from early childbirth. Policy makers need to come up with gender sensitive policies that will make it easier for girls who get pregnant to continue with their education, so that they may be productive and self-reliant.

Stealth export of hydrogen and methane from a low temperature serpentinization system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larson, B. I.; Lang, S. Q.; Lilley, M. D.; Olson, E. J.; Lupton, J. E.; Nakamura, K.; Buck, N. J.

2015-11-01

Chemical input to the deep sea from hydrothermal systems is a globally distributed phenomenon. Hydrothermal discharge is one of the primary mechanisms by which the Earth's interior processes manifest themselves at the Earth's surface, and it provides a source of energy for autotrophic processes by microbes that are too deep to capitalize on sunlight. Much is known about the water-column signature of this discharge from high-temperature mid-ocean Ridge (MOR) environments and their neighboring low-temperature counterparts. Hydrothermal discharge farther away from the ridge, however, has garnered less attention, owing in part to the difficulty in finding this style of venting, which eludes methods of detection that work well for high-temperature 'black smoker'-type venting. Here we present a case study of the plume from one such 'invisible' off-axis environment, The Lost City, with an emphasis on the dissolved volatile content of the hydrothermal plume. Serpentinization and abiotic organic synthesis generate significant concentrations of H2 and CH4 in vent fluid, but these species are unevenly transported to the overlying plume, which itself appears to be a composite of two different sources. A concentrated vent cluster on the talus slope channels fluid through at least eight chimneys, producing a water-column plume with the highest observed concentrations of CH4 in the field. In contrast, a saddle in the topography leading up to a carbonate cap hosts broadly distributed, nearly invisible venting apparent only in its water-column signals of redox potential and dissolved gas content, including the highest observed plume H2. After normalizing H2 and CH4 to the 3He background-corrected anomaly (3HeΔ) to account for mixing and relative amount of mantle input, it appears that, while a minimum of 60% of CH4 is transported out of the system, greater than 90% of the H2 is consumed in the subsurface prior to venting. The exception to this pattern occurs in the plume originating from the area dubbed Chaff Beach, in which somewhat more than 10% of the original H2 remains, indicating that this otherwise unremarkable plume, and others like it, may represent a significant source of H2 to the deep sea.

Methane emissions, feed intake, performance, digestibility, and rumen fermentation of finishing beef cattle offered whole-crop wheat silages differing in grain content.

PubMed

Mc Geough, E J; O'Kiely, P; Hart, K J; Moloney, A P; Boland, T M; Kenny, D A

2010-08-01

This study aimed to quantify the methane emissions and feed intake, performance, carcass traits, digestibility, and rumen fermentation characteristics of finishing beef cattle offered diets based on whole-crop wheat (WCW) silages differing in grain content and to rank these relative to diets based on grass silage (GS) and ad libitum concentrates (ALC). In Exp. 1, a total of 90 continental crossbred steers [538 +/- 27.6 kg of BW (mean +/- SD)] were blocked by BW and assigned in a randomized complete block design to 1 of 6 treatments based on 4 WCW silages [grain-to-straw plus chaff ratios of 11:89 (WCW I), 21:79 (WCW II), 31:69 (WCW III), and 47:53 (WCW IV)], GS, and ALC. Increasing grain content in WCW silage resulted in a quadratic (P = 0.01) response in DMI, with a linear (P < 0.001) increase in carcass gain [CG; 577 (WCW I), 650 (WCW II), 765 (WCW III), and 757 g/d (WCW IV)]. The G:F also increased linearly (P < 0.001) in response to increasing the grain content of WCW silage. A quadratic (P < 0.01) response in daily methane output [295 (WCW I), 315 (WCW II), 322 (WCW III), and 273 g/d (WCW IV)], measured using the sulfur hexafluoride tracer technique, was observed in response to increasing the grain content of WCW; however, linear decreases were observed when expressed relative to DMI (P = 0.01) and CG (P < 0.001). Cattle offered GS exhibited carcass gains similar to those offered WCW silage diets and had greater methane emissions than cattle in any other treatment when expressed relative to DMI. Cattle offered ALC exhibited greater (P < 0.01) carcass gains and decreased (P < 0.001) methane emissions, irrespective of the unit of expression, compared with cattle in any of the silage-based treatments. In Exp. 2, rumen fermentation parameters were determined using 4 ruminally cannulated Rotbunde-Holstein steers (413 +/- 30.1 kg of BW) randomly allocated among WCW I, the average of WCW II and III (WCW II/III), WCW IV, and GS in a 4 x 4 Latin square design. Ruminal pH and total VFA concentration did not differ across dietary treatments. Molar proportion of acetic acid decreased (P = 0.01), with propionic acid tending to increase (P = 0.06) with increasing grain content. It was concluded that increasing the grain content of WCW silage reduced methane emissions relative to DMI and CG and improved animal performance. However, the relativity of GS to WCW in terms of methane emissions was dependent on the unit of expression used. Cattle offered ALC exhibited decreased methane emissions and greater performance than those offered any of the silage-based treatments.

How do you select the right security features for your company's products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pickett, Gordon E.

1998-04-01

If your company manufacturers, supplies, or distributes products of almost any type, style, shape, or for any usage, they may become the objective of fraudulent activities from one or more sources. Therefore, someone at your company should be concerned about how these activities may affect the company's future. This paper/presentation will provide information about where these 'threats' may come from, what products have been compromised in the past, and what steps might be taken to deter these threats. During product security conferences, conversations, and other sources of information, you'll hear about many different types of security features that can be incorporated into monetary and identification documents, packaging, labeling, and other products/systems to help protect against counterfeiting, unauthorized tampering, or to identify 'genuine' products. Many of these features have been around for some time (which means that they may have lost at least some of their effectiveness) while others, or improved versions of some of the more mature features, have been or are being developed. This area is a 'moving target' and re-examination of the threats and counterthreats needs to be an ongoing activity. The 'value' and the capabilities of these features can sometimes be overstated, i.e. that a feature/system can solve all of the security-related problems that you may (or may not) have with your products. A couple of things to always keep in mind is that no feature(s) is universally effective and none of the features, or even combinations of features, is totally 'tamperproof' or counterfeitproof, irrespective of what may be said or claimed. So how do you go about determining if you have a product security problem and what, if any, security features might be used to reduce the threat(s) to your products? This paper will attempt to provide information to help you separate the 'wheat from the chaff' in these considerations. Specifically, information to be discussed in this paper will attempt to assist you and your associates define (1) what products are or may be under threat and how many different ways the product(s) might be compromised, (2) who might attempt to compromise your company's product(s), (3) what product security features may be effective in deterring the perceived threats, (4) how many deterrent features are needed, and should the features be overt, covert, or a combination of the two, (5) how will the candidate features hold up in the 'usage' environment, and (6) who will 'validate' the features and what skill levels, or auxiliary equipment, will be needed? Obviously, the cost effectiveness for adding possible security features to the product(s) needs to be considered, but more than just the cost of the feature, or the value of the product, needs to be factored into these considerations. For example, the effect of any compromise on the company's reputation and legal liabilities. This paper obviously can not provide all of the 'answers' but will attempt to provide you with 'food for thought.'

The Multiple Doppler Radar Workshop, November 1979.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carbone, R. E.; Harris, F. I.; Hildebrand, P. H.; Kropfli, R. A.; Miller, L. J.; Moninger, W.; Strauch, R. G.; Doviak, R. J.; Johnson, K. W.; Nelson, S. P.; Ray, P. S.; Gilet, M.

1980-10-01

The findings of the Multiple Doppler Radar Workshop are summarized by a series of six papers. Part I of this series briefly reviews the history of multiple Doppler experimentation, fundamental concepts of Doppler signal theory, and organization and objectives of the Workshop. Invited presentations by dynamicists and cloud physicists are also summarized.Experimental design and procedures (Part II) are shown to be of critical importance. Well-defined and limited experimental objectives are necessary in view of technological limitations. Specified radar scanning procedures that balance temporal and spatial resolution considerations are discussed in detail. Improved siting for suppression of ground clutter as well as scanning procedures to minimize errors at echo boundaries are discussed. The need for accelerated research using numerically simulated proxy data sets is emphasized.New technology to eliminate various sampling limitations is cited as an eventual solution to many current problems in Part III. Ground clutter contamination may be curtailed by means of full spectral processing, digital filters in real time, and/or variable pulse repetition frequency. Range and velocity ambiguities also may be minimized by various pulsing options as well as random phase transmission. Sidelobe contamination can be reduced through improvements in radomes, illumination patterns, and antenna feed types. Radar volume-scan time can be sharply reduced by means of wideband transmission, phased array antennas, multiple beam antennas, and frequency agility.Part IV deals with synthesis of data from several radars in the context of scientific requirements in cumulus clouds, widespread precipitation, and severe convective storms. The important temporal and spatial scales are examined together with the accuracy required for vertical air motion in each phenomenon. Factors that introduce errors in the vertical velocity field are identified and synthesis techniques are discussed separately for the dual Doppler and multiple Doppler cases. Various filters and techniques, including statistical and variational approaches, are mentioned. Emphasis is placed on the importance of experiment design and procedures, technological improvements, incorporation of all information from supporting sensors, and analysis priority for physically simple cases. Integrated reliability is proposed as an objective tool for radar siting.Verification of multiple Doppler-derived vertical velocity is discussed in Part V. Three categories of verification are defined as direct, deductive, and theoretical/numerical. Direct verification consists of zenith-pointing radar measurements (from either airborne or ground-based systems), air motion sensing aircraft, instrumented towers, and tracking of radar chaff. Deductive sources include mesonetworks, aircraft (thermodynamic and microphysical) measurements, satellite observations, radar reflectivity, multiple Doppler consistency, and atmospheric soundings. Theoretical/numerical sources of verification include proxy data simulation, momentum checking, and numerical cloud models. New technology, principally in the form of wide bandwidth radars, is seen as a development that may reduce the need for extensive verification of multiple Doppler-derived vertical air motions. Airborne Doppler radar is perceived as the single most important source of verification within the bounds of existing technology.Nine stages of data processing and display are identified in Part VI. The stages are identified as field checks, archival, selection, editing, coordinate transformation, synthesis of Cartesian fields, filtering, display, and physical analysis. Display of data is considered to be a problem critical to assimilation of data at all stages. Interactive computing systems and software are concluded to be very important, particularly for the editing stage. Three- and 4-dimensional displays are considered essential for data assimilation, particularly at the physical analysis stage. The concept of common data tape formats is approved both for data in radar spherical space as well as for synthesized Cartesian output.1169

GHOSTLY REFLECTIONS IN THE PLEIADES

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. These are called reflection nebulae. The famous cluster is easily visible in the evening sky during the winter months as a small grouping of bright blue stars, named after the 'Seven Sisters' of Greek mythology. Resembling a small dipper, this star cluster lies in the constellation Taurus at a distance of about 380 light-years from Earth. The unaided eye can discern about half a dozen bright stars in the cluster, but a small telescope will reveal that the Pleiades contains many hundreds of fainter stars. In many cases, the nebulae surrounding star clusters represent material from which the stars have formed recently. However the Pleiades nebulosity is actually an independent cloud, drifting through the cluster at a relative speed of about 6.8 miles/second (11 kilometers/second). In 1890, American astronomer E. E. Barnard, observing visually with the Lick Observatory 36-inch telescope in California, discovered an exceptionally bright nebulosity adjacent to the bright Pleiades star Merope. It is now cataloged as IC 349, or 'Barnard's Merope Nebula.' IC 349 is so bright because it lies extremely close to Merope--only about 3,500 times the separation of the Earth from the Sun, or about 0.06 light-year--and thus is strongly illuminated by the star's light. In the new Hubble image, Merope itself is just outside the frame on the upper right. The colorful rays of light at the upper right, pointing back to the star, are an optical phenomenon produced within the telescope, and are not real. However, the remarkable parallel wisps extending from lower left to upper right are real features, revealed for the first time through Hubble's high-resolution imaging capability. Astronomers George Herbig and Theodore Simon of the University of Hawaii obtained these broadband observations with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on September 19, 1999. Herbig and Simon propose that, as the Merope Nebula approaches Merope, the strong starlight shining on the dust decelerates the dust particles. Physicists call this phenomenon 'radiation pressure.' Smaller dust particles are slowed down more by the radiation pressure than the larger particles. Thus, as the cloud approaches the star, there is a sifting of particles by size, much like grain thrown in the air to separate wheat from chaff. The nearly straight lines pointing toward Merope are thus streams of larger particles, continuing on toward the star while the smaller decelerated particles are left behind at the lower left of the picture. Over the next few thousand years, the nebula--if it survives the close passage without being completely destroyed--will move on past Merope, somewhat like a comet swinging past our Sun. This chance collision allows astronomers to study interstellar material under very rare conditions, and thus learn more about the structure of the dust lying between the stars. Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: George Herbig and Theodore Simon (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii)

Obituary: Fred Lawrence Whipple, 1906-2004

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeomans, Donald Keith

2004-12-01

Fred Whipple, one of the founding fathers of planetary science, died on August 30, 2004 just two months shy of his 98th birthday. The breadth of Fred's published research from 1927 through 2000 is quite extraordinary. Although his collected works were published in two massive volumes in 1972, shortly before his retirement, Fred's research contributions continued for another three decades - and another volume is planned. Fred Lawrence Whipple was born on November 5, 1906 on a farm in Red Oak Iowa. His parents were Harry Lawrence and Celestia (MacFarl) Whipple. At the age of fifteen, the Whipple family moved to California where Fred studied mathematics at Occidental College and the University of California at Los Angeles. As a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley in 1930, he was one of the first to compute an orbit for the newly discovered planet Pluto. Upon receiving his PhD in 1931, he joined the staff of the Harvard College Observatory. He was Chairman of the Harvard Department of Astronomy (1949 - 1956), Director or the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (1955 - 1973), Phillips Professor of Astronomy (1968 - 1977) and Emeritus Phillips Professor of astronomy (1977 - 2004). In 1928 he married Dorothy Woods and their son, Earle Raymond, survives him. The marriage ended in divorce in 1935. Eleven years later, he married Babette F. Samelson and she too survives him, as do their two daughters Laura and (Dorothy) Sandra. Shortly after arriving at Harvard in the early 1930's, Fred developed a photographic tracking network to determine meteor trajectories from simultaneous observations from two or more stations. The photographic trails, chopped by a rotating shutter, allowed their orbits in space to be determined accurately. With the strong involvement of Richard McCrosky and others, he concluded in the early 1960's that most of these meteors were on comet-like orbits and less than 1% of the naked eye, sporadic meteors could be traced to an origin outside the solar system. To fill the daytime gap when meteors could not be photographed, Fred organized a program for the radio detection of these objects. With the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, Whipple's visual network of amateur astronomers (Moon watch) was already in place to follow its progress and later on he developed an optical tracking system for meteors and artificial satellites using wide field, Baker-Nunn cameras. This latter system proved so successful that the precision tracking of these satellites could be used to model the Earth's shape and density variations from the observed gravitational effects upon these satellite orbits. He once noted that the highlight of his career was having his family and parents present at the White House while he received the President's Award for Distinguished Public Service from John F. Kennedy for this work. His seminal works in 1950-51 on the icy conglomerate model for the cometary nucleus prompted a complete paradigm switch. Until then, the current consensus model for a comet was a flying cloud of particles; it had been so since the second half of the nineteenth century when comets were identified with meteor showers. He envisaged the cometary nucleus as a conglomerate of ices (mostly water, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ices) embedded within, and covered over with, a nonvolatile matrix of meteoric material. Part of his rationale for developing this "dirty snowball" model for the cometary nucleus was to provide an explanation of the so-called nongravitational forces acting upon comets. The rocket-like thrusting of a comet when the ices vaporize near the sun introduced a small, but noticeable, thrust on the comet itself and when this effect was properly modeled, the motions of active comets could be predicted far more accurately. Subsequent spacecraft ultraviolet observations showing enormous cometary hydrogen atmospheres confirmed that the major cometary ice was likely to be water. The 1986 Giotto spacecraft images, revealing a solid cometary nucleus (albeit far blacker than most had predicted), were a dramatic confirmation of Whipple's model -- though in truth few really expected otherwise at the time. In 1942-1946, he led an effort to develop and implement strips of reflective aluminum (i.e., chaff) to confuse enemy radars in World War II. In 1948, he received a certificate of merit for this work from President Harry S. Truman. Eleven years before the launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957, he developed what is now generally termed the Whipple Shield; a thin outer metallic layer stands out from a spacecraft and protects it from high-speed interplanetary dust particles. While particles hitting this outside thin layer would penetrate, they would also vaporize, and in so doing, the resultant debris would disperse and lack the energy to penetrate the main spacecraft skin. This design was used to successfully protect the Stardust spacecraft from cometary dust particles when the spacecraft flew rapidly past comet Tempel 1 in January 2004. He also made significant contributions to fields as diverse as meteor astronomy, satellite tracking, variable stars, supernovae, stellar evolution, astronomical instrumentation and radio astronomy. Along with his colleagues Willy Ley, Wernher von Braun and others, Fred wrote and consulted for a series of very popular articles in Collier's magazine in the early 1950's and these articles, along with earlier lectures at New York's Hayden Planetarium, helped spark the U.S. involvement in space exploration. Of these early beginnings of space exploration, Fred wrote in 1972 "it was no easy task to convince people that man could really go into empty space beyond the Earth's atmosphere, and even beyond the Earth's tenacious gravitational grasp. On looking back over these years, I am still surprised that we succeeded in convincing them." Fred was responsible for initiating the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's observatory on Mt. Hopkins near Tucson Arizona and he was active in the design of the multi-mirror telescope that was in operation until 1999, when a 6.5-meter single mirror telescope replaced it. In 1981, the observatory was renamed the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. Fred was successful as both a manager of large science enterprises and as a researcher. He once told me that one of his secrets for doing both management and science simultaneously involved his spending some mornings in a room adjacent to his office doing research. His secretary was asked to (correctly) notify morning callers that Dr. Whipple was not in his office at the moment and could he return the call later on in the day. When asked the secret of his longevity at his 90th birthday party, he noted, "you've got to start early." Fortunately for Planetary Science, he did start early - and he stayed late. Until he reached 90 years of age, he rode his bicycle to the office most every day and those days when he drove to work, his car was easy to identify from the single word "comets" on his license plate. Fred Whipple was awarded seven honorary degrees and included among his many tributes are a certificate of Merit from President Truman (1948), the J. Lawrence Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1949), a Distinguished Federal Civilian Service Award (1963), the Frederick C. Leonard Memorial Medal of the Meteoritical Society (1970), the Gold Medal of the Royal Society (1983), the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1986), and the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (1987). He also discovered six new comets and discovered and named an asteroid (1252 Celestia) after his mother. Asteroid 1940 was renamed (1940) Whipple to honor his professional achievements. Fred Whipple was a Harvard Professor, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a Presidential medallist and his name is synonymous with comets. He was one of the few great innovative thinkers in twentieth century planetary science. Yet through it all, he remained just Fred to all who knew him. Whether you were a young student or a distinguished internationally recognized scientist, this gentleman treated everyone with the same kindness and respect. The entire planetary science community has benefited immeasurably from his wide-ranging insights; we've lost a creative scientist and a kind mentor - but he remains a superb role model for us all. This obituary is based on one by D.K. Yeomans and J. Veverka that appeared in "Nature" (4 Nov. 2004, vol. 432, p. 31). Photograph provided by J. Veverka.

hwhap_ep19_weather_to_launch

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-11-17

>> HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PODCAST! WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL PODCAST OF THE NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, EPISODE 19: WEATHER TO LAUNCH. I’M GARY JORDAN AND I’LL BE YOUR HOST TODAY. SO IF YOU’RE NEW TO THE SHOW, THIS IS WHERE WE BRING IN NASA EXPERTS-- SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS, ASTRONAUTS, METEOROLOGISTS-- ALL TO TELL YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON HERE AT NASA. SO TODAY WE’RE TALKING WITH TIM GARNER. HE’S THE METEOROLOGIST FOR THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS NOAA, HERE AT THE NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER IN HOUSTON, TEXAS. WE TALKED ABOUT WEATHER AND HOW IT AFFECTS HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT, ESPECIALLY IN TERMS OF LAUNCHES, LANDINGS, TESTS AND TRAINING, AND EVEN HOW WEATHER COULD IMPACT FUTURE SPACEFLIGHTS. SO WITH NO FURTHER DELAY, LET’S GO LIGHTSPEED AND JUMP RIGHT AHEAD TO OUR TALK WITH MR. TIM GARNER. ENJOY. [ MUSIC ] >> T MINUS FIVE SECONDS AND COUNTING-- MARK. [ INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER ] >> HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PODCAST. [ MUSIC ] THANKS FOR COMING TODAY, TIM. I GUESS I’LL JUST START OFF BY SAYING, BEAUTIFUL WEATHER WE’RE HAVING, HUH? >> YOU BET IT IS. I WILL SAY THAT I’M IN ADVERTISING, NOT PRODUCTION, SO I DIDN’T CREATE IT. [ LAUGHTER ] >> ALL RIGHT. WELL, I’M EXCITED ABOUT THIS TOPIC TODAY BECAUSE YOU WOULDN’T IMMEDIATELY CONSIDER THINKING ABOUT WEATHER WHENEVER YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT SPACEFLIGHT, BUT IT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE, RIGHT, BECAUSE EVERYTHING WE DO EVENTUALLY LAUNCHES FROM EARTH, RIGHT? IT COMES FROM EARTH. >> AT SOME POINT, YOU GO UP THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE, AND USUALLY YOU COME BACK DOWN THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE AS WELL. >> EXACTLY. SO THAT’S KIND OF WHAT I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT TODAY, JUST KIND OF WEATHER AND HOW IT AFFECTS HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT. SO I GUESS WE’LL JUST START OFF WITH JUST HOW THIS IS ALL STRUCTURED. AND I KNOW WE WERE TALKING A LITTLE BIT JUST HERE IN THE BEGINNING JUST ABOUT NOAA AND NASA AND THOSE DIFFERENT LAYERS, BUT SO THE PART THAT YOU’RE IN, THE SPECIFIC PART, IS CALLED THE SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP, RIGHT? >> THAT’S CORRECT. >> OKAY. SO WHAT DO THEY DO? >> WELL, LARGELY, ANYTHING INVOLVED WITH THE MANNED SPACEFLIGHT PROGRAM, THE OPERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THAT. LAUNCHES ARE USUALLY HANDLED FROM 45TH WEATHER SQUADRON, TYPICALLY OUT AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER-- THE AIR FORCE HANDLES THE LAUNCH WEATHER. >> OKAY. >> SO ANYTHING INVOLVING THE LANDING WEATHER IN MANNED SPACEFLIGHT THAT’S CONTROLLED BY THE MISSION CONTROL CENTER HERE AT JSC, SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP GETS INVOLVED WITH THAT. >> OKAY. >> LARGELY IT’S LANDING WEATHER, AND SOME EARTH OBSERVATION STUFF WHEN YOU’RE ON ORBIT AS WELL. AND A LITTLE BIT OF MONITORING OF LOCAL WEATHER FOR JSC, WHICH I THINK WE’LL TALK ABOUT LATER. >> YEAH, ABSOLUTELY. AND THAT’S KIND OF LIKE THE BROAD SPECTRUM OF THINGS, BUT IT’S PART OF-- AND WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE LAYERS-- SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP IS PART OF NOAA-- NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, RIGHT? >> YEAH, SPECIFICALLY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. >> OKAY, YEAH, RIGHT, THERE’S EVEN MORE LAYERS TO THAT. SO WHAT’S JUST A GENERAL OVERVIEW, JUST EVEN PULLING BACK A LITTLE MORE? WHAT’S NOAA? WHAT’S THEIR CONCERN? >> NOAA IS THE AGENCY THAT’S CHARGED WITH THE OCEANS AND THE ATMOSPHERES. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE MAN IN CHARGE OR THE PERSON IN CHARGE IS THE UNDER SECRETARY FOR THE OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERES. THAT’S WHAT HIS OFFICIAL TITLE IS IN THE GOVERNMENT. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IS A PART OF THAT. IT’S CHARGED WITH THE PROMOTING THE NATION’S ECONOMY THROUGH EFFICIENT ISSUANCE OF WEATHER FORECAST AND RIVER FORECAST WARNINGS AS WELL. >> OKAY. >> SO THAT’S WHAT THE LARGER ROLE IS. >> OKAY, ALL RIGHT. NICE LITTLE OVERVIEW THERE. SO THEN WE’RE GOING BACK DOWN TO THE SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP. THINKING ABOUT SPACEFLIGHT JUST IN GENERAL, WHAT IS-- WHY IS WEATHER SUCH A CONCERN, OR WHY IS IT A CONSIDERATION WHEN YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT? >> WELL, MOST VEHICLES, THEY HAVE SOME SENSITIVITY TO THE ATMOSPHERE. MOST PEOPLE WOULD THINK IT’D BE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS, WHICH ARE SOME OF THE BIGGER IMPACTS. >> YEAH. >> BUT ALSO THE WINDS NEAR THE SURFACE AND THE WINDS ALOFT. THE WINDS ALOFT WILL AFFECT THE VEHICLE TRAJECTORY ON LAUNCH AND ON LANDING AS WELL. AS WE GET BACK TO DEALING MORE WITH REENTRY VEHICLES THAT USE PARACHUTES, THEY’LL DRIFT WITH THE WIND A LITTLE BIT AS WELL. AND YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU HIT YOUR TARGET. >> ABSOLUTELY. >> SO KNOWLEDGE OF THE UPPER WINDS IS VERY VITAL TO A SUCCESSFUL LANDING. >> OKAY, SO WHAT SORTS OF THINGS ARE YOU LOOKING AT FOR, THEN, WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING AT WEATHER AND MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SPACEFLIGHT? >> IT’LL DEPEND IN LARGE PART ON THE VEHICLE AND ITS PARTICULAR SENSITIVITIES TO THE WEATHER, BUT ALMOST ALL OF THEM WILL HAVE A SENSITIVITY TO LIGHTNING. >> OKAY. >> BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO GET ANY VEHICLE ON LAUNCH OR LANDING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. >> DEFINITELY NOT. >> YOU COULD BUILD A VEHICLE THAT WAS PERFECTLY HARDENED TO JUST ABOUT ANY KIND OF WEATHER, BUT IT’D PROBABLY BE TOO HEAVY TO GET OFF THE GROUND. >> OH, YEAH. >> SO IT’S LIKE EVERYTHING IN SPACEFLIGHT-- IT’S A TRADEOFF BETWEEN WEIGHT, AND MONEY, AND THE ABILITY TO GET INTO ORBIT. >> SURE. >> SO A LOT OF THE WEATHER THINGS IMPACT THAT. SOME OF THE NEWER VEHICLES AS WELL, SINCE THEY’RE GOING TO SPLASH DOWN-- BACK TO THE FUTURE-- OR BACK TO THE PAST, IN A CERTAIN WAY. >> YEAH. >> WE’RE ALSO WORRIED ABOUT WAVE HEIGHTS AT SEA. >> OH, YEAH. >> AND THE WIND SPEEDS AT SEA. AND THE VEHICLE CAN SPLASH DOWN IN CERTAIN WAVE HEIGHTS, BUT THEN YOU HAVE A SECONDARY PROBLEM OF THE PEOPLE THAT GO OUT THERE AND TAKE THEM OUT OF THE VEHICLE AND RECOVER THE VEHICLE. >> RIGHT. >> THEY CAN’T BE EXPOSED TO HIGH WINDS, HIGH WAVES WHILE THEY’RE AT SEA AS WELL. AND THEN WHEN THINGS COME IN TO LAND ON THE LAND WITH PARACHUTES, FOR EXAMPLE, YOU DON’T WANT TO COME DOWN TOO HARD OR THE WINDS BE TOO HIGH, BECAUSE THEN THE PARACHUTE WILL DRAG IT OVER, AND IT COULD CONCEIVABLY DRAG THE CAPSULE ALONG. >> YEAH. >> USUALLY THAT’S PRETTY HIGH WIND SPEED TO DO THAT, SO THOSE LIMITS ARE USUALLY SET PRETTY HIGH. >> OKAY. >> AS I MENTION, WE WORRY ABOUT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. YOU DON’T WANT, SAY, A PARACHUTE TO GET WET. OR IF YOU HAD A REENTRY VEHICLE THAT WAS WINGED, YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE RUNWAY AS YOU’RE COMING IN. WITH A THUNDERSTORM NEARBY, YOU HAVE CONCERNS OF LIGHTNING. YOU COULD TRIGGER LIGHTNING. USUALLY WHEN AN AIRCRAFT OR A SPACE VEHICLE ENCOUNTERS LIGHTNING, IT ARTIFICIALLY TRIGGERS THE LIGHTNING-- IT’S NOT USUALLY NATURALLY OCCURRING. BECAUSE ITS MERE PRESENCE IN A HIGH ELECTRIC FIELD WILL BE THAT THING THAT SETS OFF THE LIGHTNING STRIKE. >> WOW. >> AND THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED FOR APOLLO 12 ON LAUNCH. >> HUH. >> TRIGGERED LIGHTNING TWO TIMES ON LAUNCH. >> OH, WOW. >> AND ATLAS-CENTAUR 67 IN THE LATE ‘80s TRIGGERED LIGHTNING UPON LAUNCH. IT WAS AN UNMANNED VEHICLE. >> OKAY. >> AND THAT VEHICLE HAD TO BE DESTROYED, BECAUSE IT GOT OFF TRAJECTORY. >> OH, OKAY. >> SO WE WORRY ABOUT LIGHTNING AND THUNDERSTORMS QUITE A LOT. >> YEAH. >> AND IF IT’S A WINGED VEHICLE OR A PARACHUTE VEHICLE AND YOU’RE NEARBY ENOUGH TO A THUNDERSTORM, YOU COULD ALSO ENCOUNTER SOME TURBULENCE, WHICH WOULD BE A BAD DAY. >> YEAH. >> SO THERE’S LOTS OF THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT. YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE VEHICLE. CLOUDS OUT THERE WHEN YOU LAUNCH OR RECOVER THE VEHICLE-- A LOT OF TIMES YOU WANT TO HAVE GOOD VIDEOGRAPHY OF THE VEHICLE. YOU WANT TO FILM IT SO YOU CAN GO BACK AND DO SOME ENGINEERING ANALYSIS LATER. SO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE IT. CLOUDS GET IN THE WAY. >> OH, YEAH. >> SO WE WORRY QUITE A BIT ABOUT THAT AS WELL. SOME OF THE RECENT TESTING WE’VE BEEN DOING IN PREPARATION FOR SOME OF THE MISSIONS UPCOMING-- WE’RE ALSO DROPPING THE TEST VEHICLE FROM HIGH HEIGHTS, EITHER FROM AN AIRPLANE OR BY A BALLOON IN CASE FOR SOMETIMES IT CAN BE LIFTED UP BY A BALLOON. YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE BALLOON’S GOING TO GO BEFORE YOU DROP SOMETHING. >> YEAH. >> BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO DROP IT ON SOMEBODY OR SOMEBODY’S HOUSE. >> OF COURSE. >> YOU WANT TO KEEP IT ON THE RANGE. SO WE WORRY ABOUT THE UPPER WINDS FOR THINGS LIKE THAT AS WELL. SO THERE’S LOTS OF DIFFERENT WEATHER IDEAS THAT ARE OUT THERE THAT YOU’VE GOT TO LOOK AT. >> YEAH. SO YOU IN YOUR POSITION AS METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE, SO WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING AT THIS STUFF, YOU SAY YOU’RE LOOKING AT THIS AND YOU’VE GOT TO WORRY ABOUT THAT. YOU’RE LOOKING AT THIS, YOU’VE GOT TO WORRY ABOUT THIS. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ADVISE, TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS? ARE YOU THERE IN THE TESTING FIELD LIKE SAYING, “HEY, YOU’VE GOT TO WATCH OUT FOR THESE WINDS,” OR HOW ARE YOU INVOLVED?>> MOSTLY AT SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP WE’RE WORKING IN ONE OF THE MULTIPURPOSE SUPPORT ROOMS IN THE MISSION CONTROL CENTER. >> OKAY. >> THERE’S A WEATHER ROOM, ESSENTIALLY. IT’S THE SINGLE PURPOSE MULTIPURPOSE SUPPORT ROOM, I GUESS. >> OKAY. >> AND WE’VE GOT SEVERAL-- WE’VE GOT TWO MAJOR WEATHER SYSTEMS BACK THERE. ONE THAT NASA PROVIDED, THAT LEGACY SYSTEM WE’VE HAD FOR YEARS AND YEARS CALLED THE [ INDISTINCT ]. AND THEN I’VE GOT ANOTHER COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR WEATHER STUFF CALLED AWIPS II, WHICH IS IN EVERY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. >> OKAY. >> AND BOTH OF THOSE SYSTEMS GET WEATHER SATELLITE DATA, INCLUDING THE NEW GOES-16, WHICH IS A TREMENDOUS ASSET TO THE NATION’S ECONOMY IN PROTECTION, AND IT’S A WONDERFUL SATELLITE. >> YEAH, I WAS GOING TO SAY, THAT’S THE SATELLITE, RIGHT. >> AND WE ALSO GET RADAR DATA FROM THE NETWORK OF NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADARS THAT ARE ACROSS THE COUNTRY. ALSO GET DATA FROM THE AIR FORCE’S RADAR AT THE CAPE. THEY HAVE A WEATHER RADAR NEAR PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE WHO OVERSEE THAT. AND ALL THE COMPLETE SUITE OF THE WEATHER OBSERVATIONS FROM GROUND REPORTING STATIONS, TYPICALLY AT AIRPORTS, BUT MORE AND MORE WE’RE GETTING SMALLER SCALE MEASUREMENTS-- MEZZO SCALE IS WHAT WE CALL IT-- AND A LOT OF THOSE ARE SPECIAL NETWORKS, INCLUDING SOME THAT NASA OPERATES, AND THE OTHER SPACE AND MISSILE RANGES OPERATE, THAT DENSE NETWORK OF SURFACE OBSERVATIONS. AND A LOT OF THEM ARE HOME HOBBYISTS. >> OH! >> WE RETRIEVED THAT DATA AS WELL. IT DOES NEED A LITTLE BIT MORE QUALITY CONTROL FROM TIME TO TIME, BUT WE DO DRAG THAT IN, SO WE ACTUALLY HAVE QUITE A LOT OF DATA. AND THEN OUT IN THE FIELD, THEY’LL TYPICALLY BE-- ESPECIALLY ON THE DoD SPACE AND MISSILE RANGES, WHERE WE DO A LOT OF THE ACTIVITIES, THERE’LL BE SOME METEOROLOGIST OR METEOROLOGISTS IN THE FIELD, AND THEY’LL BE RELEASING SPECIAL WEATHER BALLOONS FOR US AS WELL, AND TAKING SPECIAL SURFACE LEVEL MEASUREMENTS AS WELL. AND THERE’S OTHER TECHNOLOGIES TO MEASURE THE UPPER WINDS. THERE’S SOME WIND PROFILERS THAT WE USE. SO WE COLLECT ALL THAT DATA FROM THE FIELD BACK HERE IN THE MCC, AND WE’LL ADVISE THE FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM. >> OH. >> PRIMARILY THE FLIGHT DIRECTOR. >> OKAY. >> MY OFFICE IS ATTACHED TO THE FLIGHT DIRECTOR OFFICE HERE AT JSC. >> OKAY. >> SO I HAVE A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOSS AND A NASA BOSS. MY NASA BOSS IS ONE OF THE FLIGHT DIRECTORS. TYPICALLY, THE ASCENT AND ENTRY FLIGHT DIRECTORS. >> OKAY. IS THAT MAINLY WHEN YOU’RE PULLED IN, ASCENT AND ENTRY? >> YEAH. >> OKAY. >> WELL, WHEN THERE’S A MISSION ON ORBIT, WE WILL MONITOR SOME THINGS. >> SURE. >> FOR EXAMPLE, FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, I’M ON CALL IF I’M NOT ON CONSOLE. >> OKAY. >> SO IF THEY HAVE SOME SORT OF EMERGENCY AND THEY’VE GOT TO GET INTO SOYUZ AND THEY WANT TO MAINTAIN SITUATIONAL AWARENESS OF WHERE THEY COULD LAND, I CAN BE CALLED IN AND PROVIDE WEATHER SUPPORT FOR THAT AS WELL. >> OKAY, AND JUST MAKE SURE THAT WHEREVER THEY’RE GOING TO LAND, YOU HAVE A GOOD IDEA OF WHAT THAT WEATHER’S GOING TO BE AT THAT TIME. >> YEAH, AND FOR THE SOYUZ CAPSULE IN PARTICULAR, IT’S PRETTY ROBUST WEATHER-WISE. >> YEAH. >> THE RUSSIANS MAKE PRETTY HARDY HARDWARE. >> YEAH. THEY’VE LAUNCHED IN COLD WEATHER. >> YES THE HAVE. >> AND ALL KINDS OF STUFF, SO YEAH, EXCELLENT VEHICLE. YOU KNOW, YOU SAY YOU’RE BACK IN MISSION CONTROL AND YOU’RE GETTING ALL OF THESE DATA FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE KEY THINGS THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR? WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION, WHAT KINDS OF DATA? >> TYPICALLY IT’D BE THE WIND SPEEDS. >> WIND SPEEDS, OKAY. >> ESPECIALLY NEAR THE SURFACE. AND FROM THE WEATHER BALLOON, IT’LL BE THE WINDS THAT WE MEASURE ALOFT. WE’LL COMBINE THOSE OBSERVATIONS WITH THE COMPUTER MODEL FORECAST THAT WE HAVE, AND WE GET THOSE FROM OUR NATIONAL CENTER. AND ON OCCASION WE’LL RUN SOME SPECIAL LOCALIZED MODELS AS WELL AT A HIGHER SCALE. >> YEAH. >> AND WE’LL BLEND THOSE TOGETHER AND COME UP WITH A FORECAST AT THE LANDING TIME. >> OKAY, OKAY. >> ALSO WE’LL MONITOR THE RADAR, OF COURSE. AND A LOT OF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THIS-- THERE’S LIGHTNING DETECTION NETWORKS OUT THERE NOW, SO WE CAN TELL WHERE LIGHTNING’S STRIKING THE GROUND. >> WOW. >> YEAH, IT’S PRETTY NEAT. THERE’S SEVERAL NETWORKS OUT THERE, AND ALSO WE HAVE WHAT’S CALLED LIGHTNING MAPPING ARRAYS OR-- WHICH IS A THREE-DIMENSIONAL LIGHTNING DISPLAY, WHICH WILL SHOW LIGHTNING BOLTS IN THREE DIMENSIONS SO YOU CAN SEE THE IN-CLOUD FLASHES AS WELL. IT’S-- I REMEMBER WHEN I FIRST GOT HERE AND I SAW THAT KIND OF DATA. I WAS LIKE, “WOW, THAT STUFF EXISTS?” AND IT’S STILL, TO THIS DAY IT’S STILL REALLY PHENOMENAL AND REALLY NEAT TO LOOK AT. >> ABSOLUTELY. >> SO THAT’S HOW WE MONITOR FOR THE LIGHTNING DATA. >> OKAY. >> WITH THAT AND THE RADAR AS WELL. >> SO YOU CAN-- OBVIOUSLY, IT HAS A LOT OF SPACEFLIGHT APPLICATIONS, BUT THAT SOUNDS LIKE LIGHTNING DATA, THAT COULD BE USED FOR SOMETHING ELSE, RIGHT? >> OH, YEAH, POWER COMPANIES USE IT ALL THE TIME. >> OH, YEAH. >> MATTER OF FACT, SOME OF THE INITIAL FUNDS WAY BACK IN THE LATE ‘80s-- EARLY ‘80s, GOT THAT STARTED WAS SOME OF THE POWER COMPANIES WANTED TO KNOW WHEN THEIR LINES WERE GOING TO GO DOWN, THAT SORT OF THING. >> YEAH. >> SO THAT’S WHERE A LOT OF THE INITIAL IMPETUS FOR THAT KIND OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY CAME ABOUT. BUT IT’S EXPANDED INTO LOTS OF SECTORS OF THE COUNTRY RIGHT NOW. >> OH, SURE. THAT SEEMS-- THAT’S GOOD DATA. >> OH, AND THERE’S A LIGHTNING SENSOR THAT’S ON THE NEW GOES-16 SATELLITE AS WELL. >> OKAY. >> SO, AND IT’LL SEND DATA DOWN TO THE GROUND EVERY 20 SECONDS AND IT USES AN OPTICAL DETECTOR FOR THAT. SO YOU HAVE PRACTICALLY GLOCAL COVER-- WELL, AT LEAST HALF THE GLOBE THAT THE SATELLITE CAN SEE FROM GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT. >> OKAY. >> SO THEIR LIGHTNING DATA IS EVERYWHERE NOW. >> YEAH. WHAT’S MORE ABOUT THE GOES-16 SATELLITE, WHAT IS THAT? >> GOES-16 IS THE NEW GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE, WHICH MEANS IT SITS IN A RELATIVE POSITION-- SAME RELATIVE POSITION OVER THE EARTH ALL THE TIME. >> RIGHT. >> IT SCANS THE EARTH ROUTINELY EVERY 5 MINUTES. >> WOW. >> IT'S GOT WHAT’S CALLED TWO MESOSCALE SECTORS, WHICH YOU CAN ZOOM IN ON A SMALLER PART OF THE EARTH, AND IT’LL SCAN THOSE EVERY MINUTE, AND IF YOU OVERLAP THOSE TWO YOU CAN GET DATA EVERY 30 SECONDS. SO IT LOOKS LIKE A HIGH RESOLUTION MOVIE. >> OH. >> THE VISIBLE CHANNEL IS TWICE THE-- HAS TWICE THE PRECISION OF THE PREVIOUS ERA OF SATELLITE, SO YOU SEE MORE DATA, SMALLER DATA. AND IT'S ALSO GOT MORE INFRARED CHANNELS SO YOU CAN SEE HOW THE WATER VAPOR’S MOVING AROUND THE ATMOSPHERE, YOU CAN SEE CLOUDS, YOU CAN SEE AREAS OF-- THAT RESPOND TO SULFUR CONTENT. SO YOU CAN PICK OUT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS, FOR EXAMPLE, WITH IT. >> WHOA. >> YEAH, THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH IT AND IT’S-- GET ON THE WEB, LOOK FOR GOES-16, LOOK FOR HIGH-RES MOVIE LOOP. IT’S REALLY COOL TO LOOK AT. >> YEAH. >> AND FOR A SCIENTIST, IT’S REALLY EXCITING DATA. >> ABSOLUTELY. >> AND FOR THE SPACEFLIGHT SIDE OF THAT, NOW THAT WE GET DATA MORE FREQUENTLY WE CAN-- IF A SITUATION’S KIND OF DICEY ON WHAT’S GOING ON WITH CLOUD COVER, YOU CAN WATCH THAT RIGHT UP ALMOST UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT. PREVIOUSLY, WE’D HAVE TO WAIT UP TO 15 MINUTES FOR THE DATA TO COME IN. AND A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN 15 MINUTES. >> YEAH. >> FOR EXAMPLE, IN THE SHUTTLE ERA, FOR THE RETURN TO LAUNCH SITE ABORT, THAT WAS 25 MINUTES AFTER LANDING. IF WE HAD TO WAIT 15 MINUTES FOR A SATELLITE PICTURE, SOMETHING CAN MOVE A LONG WAY OR FORM PRETTY QUICKLY IN THAT AMOUNT OF TIME, WHICH IS ALMOST THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME YOU’RE TRYING TO FORECAST. >> WOW. >> IT’S REALLY NICE. >> DID THE NEEDS OF THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM SORT OF DRIVE THIS, LIKE, THE NEED FOR QUICKER DATA? >> NO, NOT DIRECTLY. >> OKAY. >> BUT IT WAS MORE OR LESS JUST TECHNOLOGY MARCHING ON. >> OH, YEAH. >> YEAH. >> WHICH IT WILL DO, RIGHT? SO THE GOES-16, I DO REMEMBER SEEING A LOT OF IMAGERY WHEN HARVEY WAS PASSING THROUGH. >> YES. >> THEY WERE-- THERE WAS A LOT THAT WAS BEING MONITORED. I THINK SOIL SATURATION, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. >> SOIL MOISTURE, SOIL SATURATION. >> YEAH, YEAH. >> YEAH, ONE OF THE INFRARED CHANNELS WILL RESPOND TO WATER ON THE GROUND REALLY WELL AND YOU CAN SEE THE SOILS BECOME SATURATED USING THE INFRARED CHANNELS. >> YEAH. >> SO THE NEAR CHANNELS THAT RESPOND TO VEGETATION. >> OKAY. >> YEAH, IT’S SOMETHING WE DIDN’T HAVE BEFORE. >> ABSOLUTELY. >> YEAH. >> SO BACK-- LET’S GO TO THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM FOR A BIT. WERE YOU-- DID YOU WORK THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM, THE WEATHER FOR IT? >> YES, I DID. >> OKAY. >> SINCE 1991 IS WHEN I ARRIVED. >> OKAY. >> AND FOR ABOUT ‘92 WAS THE SPACE SHUTTLE MISSIONS. >> ALL RIGHT. >> AND I WAS THE ASCENT ENTRY LEAD FORECASTER HERE AT SMG FOR ABOUT 14 OF THOSE. >> ALL RIGHT. >> SO IT WAS QUITE A LOT OF THEM. >> ASCENT ENTRY-- OKAY, SO WHAT DID THAT LOOK LIKE? WHAT SORTS OF THINGS WERE YOU DOING SPECIFICALLY FOR SHUTTLE MISSIONS IN FLORIDA, LAUNCHES AND LANDINGS? >> FOR FLORIDA, ON ASCENT DAY, SMG WAS PRIMARILY WORRIED ABOUT THE WEATHER AT THE ABORT LANDING SITES. >> OKAY. >> ONE OF THOSE WAS THE RETURN TO LAUNCH SITE, WHICH WOULD’VE BEEN THE SHUTTLE LANDING FACILITY THERE AT THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER. >> OKAY. >> THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT THAT ON A LAUNCH DAY WAS WHILE EVERYBODY WAS LOOKING OUT TOWARDS THE PAD FROM THE LAUNCH CONTROL CENTER, IT LOOKED OUT OVER THE OCEAN. AND IF A SEA BREEZE MOVED INLAND YOU COULD HAVE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OCCURRING BEHIND YOU OVER AT THE SHUTTLE LANDING FACILITY. >> OH. >> SO YOU’D LOOK OUT ONE DIRECTION AND IT’S, “OH, IT’S GREAT. WHY ARE WE WAITING?” AND YET, AT FIVE MILES BEHIND YOU THERE’S A THUNDERSTORM GOING ON. >> OKAY. >> THE OTHER THING WE WOULD LOOK AT WOULD BE THE TRANSOCEANIC ABORT LANDING SITES. THOSE WERE IN AFRICA AND SPAIN, AND LATER IN FRANCE. AND WE’D MONITOR THE WEATHER FOR THOSE AS WELL. ON LAUNCH DAY YOU HAD TO HAVE GOOD RTLS WEATHER, RETURN TO LAUNCH SITE, AND YOU HAD TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE OF THE TRANSOCEANIC ABORT LANDING SITES HAD TO HAVE GOOD WEATHER. AND WE DID ACTUALLY SCRUB FOUR LAUNCHES FOR TAL WEATHER DURING THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM. >> WOW, JUST BECAUSE NOTHING WAS LINING UP AT THOSE TIMES? >> ALL THREE OR ALL FOUR SITES WOULD BE DOWN FOR THE WEATHER CRITERIA. >> HUH. >> AND YOU WERE NOT A POPULAR PERSON ON THAT DAY BECAUSE THAT MEANT THAT THE WEATHER WAS GOOD AT KSC AND EVERYBODY’S WAITING FOR SOMETHING THAT’S ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OCEAN. >> RIGHT. >> BUT, YOU KNOW, KEEPING THOSE ASTRONAUT’S SAFETY IN MIND, THAT’S WHY THOSE RULES WERE THERE. >> YEAH. WHAT WERE SOME OF THE BIG TAKEAWAYS THAT YOU LEARNED IN YOUR TENURE AT WORKING SHUTTLE? >> MOSTLY THE NEWER TECHNOLOGY THAT CAME ALONG WE GOT BETTER AND BETTER AT FORECASTING. >> AH. >> EARLY ON, WE WERE KIND OF SPLIT BETWEEN LANDING AT KSC AND AT EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE. EACH SITE HAD ITS OWN UNIQUE WEATHER ISSUES. AT EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE IS TYPICALLY THE SURFACE WINDS WERE GOING TO BE A PROBLEM, EITHER THE CROSSWINDS OR A HEADWIND FOR THE SHUTTLE. >> OKAY. >> KSC, YOU KNOW, WE USUALLY PICKED LAUNCH AND LANDING TIMES-- WE USE SOME CLIMATOLOGY TO HELP PICK THOSE, SO WE USUALLY WOULD LAUNCH DURING THE TIME OF THE DAY THAT WAS GOOD FOR THAT. SO THE RTLS WEATHER WOULD GENERALLY BE GOOD. ONCE WE HAD THE GROUND-UP RENDEZVOUS TO THE SPACE STATION THAT MEANT YOU COULDN’T CHOOSE THE LAUNCH TIME ANYMORE LIKE YOU USED TO. YOU USED TO ALWAYS BE EARLY IN THE MORNING WHEN THE WEATHER’S TYPICALLY GOOD AND THE WINDS ARE LIGHT. >> OKAY. >> BUT WHEN YOU HAD GROUND-UP RENDEZVOUS YOU’RE PRETTY MUCH HAVE TO BE IN THE SAME ORBITAL PLANE AS THE ISS. >> RIGHT. >> WHICH MEANT ANY TIME OF DAY. THEN WE STARTED MOVING INTO THE LATE AFTERNOON. WE RAN INTO MORE THUNDERSTORMS. WE RAN INTO MORE CROSSWINDS BECAUSE THE WAY THE RUNWAY’S BUILT OUT THERE, IT’S PARALLEL WITH THE COAST. SEA BREEZE WOULD COME IN WITH AN EAST WIND, THAT’D BE ALL CROSSWINDS. SO WE GOT MORE AND MORE INSTRUMENTATION TO TRACK THE SEA BREEZE. WE CAN DO THAT WITH A REALLY DENSE NETWORK OF SURFACE WIND TOWERS. YOU CAN ALSO SEE IT ON THE RADAR AND YOU CAN ALSO SEE IT ON SATELLITE IMAGERY AS WELL. SO THE WAY TECHNOLOGY HAS HELPED US WITH THAT AND THEN THE ADVANCES IN COMPUTER MODELING FOR FORECASTING, IT KEPT GETTING SMALLER AND SMALLER IN THE SCALE THAT YOU COULD LOOK AT AND THE SHORTER TIMES THAT YOU COULD LOOK AT AND IT KEPT GETTING BETTER AND BETTER. SO THINGS ALWAYS-- SEEMS LIKE WE GOT MUCH BETTER AS WE GOT ALONG IN THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM. >> VERY COOL. >> YEAH. >> SO THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM ENDED IN 2011. NOW, WE’RE INTO 2017 LOOKING FORWARD TO COMMERCIAL CREW LAUNCHES HERE SOON. WHAT TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN DEVELOPING OVER THESE PAST COUPLE YEARS THAT WE CAN APPLY TO COMMERCIAL CREW? >> FOR COMMERCIAL CREW WE GOT THE NEWER SATELLITE WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT, GOES-16. >> YEAH. >> WE’RE GETTING NEWER AND MORE PORTABLE WEATHER BALLOON SYSTEMS THAT WE CAN USE AS WELL. >> HMM. >> I’VE GOT ONE BACK IN THE OFFICE, WHERE IT’S A GROUND RECEIVER. IT’S A LAPTOP COMPUTER AND A HANDHELD RADIO, ESSENTIALLY, AND A LITTLE TINY ANTENNA. YOU USED TO, YOU HAD TO HAVE A GREAT BIG RADIO DIRECTION FINDER THAT WOULD FOLLOW THE BALLOON OR YOU WOULD TRACK IT WITH RADAR. >> YEAH. >> NOW, IT’S ALL GPS BASED. >> OKAY. >> SO IT’S HIGHER PRECISION, MORE PORTABLE, MORE BETTER EVERYTHING, AS A MATTER OF FACT. AS TECHNOLOGY’S GOTTEN BETTER WE’VE GOTTEN BETTER MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS AND BETTER FORECASTING SYSTEMS AS WELL. BUT IN LARGE PART, IT’S STILL THE SAME OLD METEOROLOGY WE’RE USING AND APPLYING FOR THE NEW VEHICLES THAT ARE COMING DOWN THE-- BOTH SLS, ORION, AND THE COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAMS. >> OKAY. ALL RIGHT. A LOT OF THE SAME STUFF. SO ARE YOU-- IS THE WEATHER THAT TAKES PLACE FOR LAUNCHES AND LANDINGS, WHAT ELSE BESIDES, YOU KNOW, JUST MAINLY ASCENT AND ENTRY, ARE YOU LOOKING AT THAT HELPS OUT WITH HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT? >> OH, IN TERMS OF THE-- JUST ABOUT ALL OF THE WEATHER THAT YOU CAN THINK OF, REALLY. >> OH, OKAY. >> YEAH. >> YEAH. >> LIKE I SAID, IT DEPENDS UPON THE VEHICLE. SOMETIMES YOU’LL BE LOOKING AT THE HUMIDITY, SOMETIMES YOU’LL BE LOOKING AT THE CLOUD COVERAGE, SOMETIMES IT’S THE RADAR. USUALLY, IT’S ALL OF THE ABOVE. >> YEAH. >> AND YOU ALSO HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THINGS THAT AREN’T NECESSARILY WEATHER RELATED AS WELL. >> HMM. >> BECAUSE SOMETIMES YOU’LL SEE THINGS ON RADAR THAT ARE-- THAT LOOK LIKE A SHOWER OR A THUNDERSTORM AND IT TURNS OUT IT’S CHAFF. IT’S THE SAME-- IT’S WHAT THE MILITARY DROPS TIN FOIL, LITTLE DROPLETS TO FOOL RADAR. >> OH. >> AND WHEN THEY’RE DOING TESTS, YOU KNOW, THAT’LL PICK UP ON THE WEATHER RADAR. >> I SEE. >> AND WE’VE HAD THAT IN THE PAST IN THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM. >> OKAY. >> THAT’S ONE OF THE THINGS-- SO YOU GOT TO BE AWARE OF WHEN THEY’RE DOING TESTS AND EXERCISES UPWIND FROM YOU BECAUSE THAT STUFF’LL BLOW OVER YOU. >> OH. >> SO THERE’S-- YOU GOT TO KEEP AN EYE ON LOTS OF DIFFERENT THINGS WHAT’S GOING ON, AS WELL AS THE STATE OF THE EQUIPMENT. AND ON OCCASION, THE SATELLITES, THEY’LL SHUT THEM DOWN WHEN THEY’RE LOOKING AT THE SUN DURING CERTAIN PERIODS. IF YOU’RE LOOKING AT LOW EARTH ORBITING SATELLITES, YOU GOT TO MAKE SURE IT COMES OVER AT THE RIGHT TIME. SO THERE’S A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS, NOT JUST PURE METEOROLOGY, BUT THE LOGISTICAL SIDE THAT YOU GOT TO MAINTAIN AWARENESS OF AS WELL. >> YEAH. >> AS WELL AS KNOWING WHAT THE FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM’S DOING. >> YEAH. IS THERE-- SO, IT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF THE WEATHER THAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT IS WITHIN THE ATMOSPHERE. YOU HAVE A LOT OF DATA COMING THERE. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT KIND OF GOES INTO SPACE? IS THERE A SPACE WEATHER ELEMENT TO THIS? >> THERE IS. GENERALLY, THE TRUE SPACE WEATHER, THINGS LIKE SOLAR FLARES, GEOMAGNETIC STORMS, LIKE THAT. THERE’S A GROUP HERE AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER CALLED THE SHRAG, THE SPACE RADIATION ANALYSIS GROUP. >> COOL. >> YEAH. THEY GENERALLY HANDLE MOST OF THAT ACTIVITY, AND THEY WORK CLOSELY WITH ANOTHER NOAA CENTER AS A MATTER OF FACT. >> OH. >> THERE’S THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT GROUP, WHICH IS IN BOULDER. IT’S A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE AND THEY MAINTAIN ALL THE FORECASTS FOR SPACE WEATHER FOR THE COUNTRY, BECAUSE IT-- BUT GENERALLY, IN SMG, SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP, WE’RE LOOKING AT WEATHER PRIMARILY IN THE LOWEST LIKE 100,000 FEET. ALTHOUGH, ON OCCASION, WE DO GO HIGHER FOR VEHICLES THAT COME IN ON LIKE A HIGH INCLINATION TRAJECTORY. THEY’RE COMING IN IN AN ORBIT THAT GOES LIKE 57 DEGREES NORTH AND SOUTH. >> HMM. >> DURING CERTAIN TIMES OF THE YEAR YOU DO HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THINGS LIKE NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS, WHICH ARE ABOUT 82 KILOMETERS HIGH IN THE ATMOSPHERE. >> OH. >> YEAH, WE HAD THE DESIGN CRITERIA FOR SHUTTLE FOR THAT BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T WANT TO FLY THROUGH THAT BECAUSE IT’S A CLOUD AND YOU’RE GOING VERY, VERY FAST AT THOSE ALTITUDES. >> YEAH. >> BUT, THEY’RE GENERALLY RESTRICTED TO VERY HIGH LATITUDES. >> HMM. >> SAO, WE USUALLY DIDN’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT AND THAT MISSION WAS DESIGNED AROUND THAT. >> OKAY. >> ON OCCASION, WE DID DO SOME THINGS THAT WERE UP IN THE MESOSPHERE, THE STRATOSPHERE, THE HIGHER ATMOSPHERE. BUT GENERALLY, IT’S WHAT MOST PEOPLE CONSIDER WEATHER IS WHAT WE’RE LOOKING AT. >> OKAY. SO HOW DOES WEATHER RELATE TO CLIMATE? YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT LOOKING AT WEATHER THROUGH LONG PERIODS OF TIME. >> MM-HMM. >> YOU HAVE A LOT OF DATA AND THE DATA SEEMS TO JUST BE-- THE INSTRUMENTS USED TO GATHER DATA ARE JUST GETTING BETTER AND BETTER. IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP THERE, WEATHER AND CLIMATE? >> YEAH. THE OLD SAYING IS CLIMATE IS WHAT YOU EXPECT, YOU KNOW, FROM-- YOU EXPECT WINTER TO BE COLD. >> YEAH. >> AND WEATHER IS WHAT YOU GET DAY TO DAY. >> MM-HMM. >> YOU CAN THINK OF IT ALONG TERMS LIKE THAT. SO I MENTIONED EARLIER, FOR SPACE SHUTTLE, A LOT OF MISSIONS WERE PLANNED WITH CLIMATE DATA IN MIND IN THAT WE KNEW THAT EARLY IN THE MORNING WINDS WERE LIGHT. >> RIGHT. >> SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WOULDN’T BE AROUND. SO A LOT OF THOSE WERE PLANNED WITH THAT IN MIND. >> MM-HMM. >> A LOT OF THE DESIGN CRITERIA FOR SOME OF THE NEW PROGRAMS COMING UP, WE’RE INTO THAT, AS WELL AS WE’VE GONE AND LOOKED AT THE OCEAN WAVE CLIMATOLOGY, ESPECIALLY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC. A LOT OF THE MISSIONS ARE DESIGNED WITH THAT IN MIND BECAUSE IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC, FOR EXAMPLE, WAVES GET PRETTY HIGH, ESPECIALLY IN THE WINTER TIME-- 20, 30 FOOT WAVES, THEY’RE NOT ALL THE UNCOMMON. >> YEAH. >> AND YOU REALLY CAN’T DESIGN A VEHICLE TO LAST VERY LONG IF IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO SPLASH DOWN IN THAT, EITHER THROUGH SOME SORT OF CONTINGENCY OR AN ABORT. >> YEAH. >> SO MOST OF THE VEHICLES ARE DESIGNED THAT IF THEY DO ABORT THEY’LL TURN AROUND AND NOT-- AND AVOID THOSE AREAS. SO THAT’S ONE WAY CLIMATE DATA, LONG TERM HISTORICAL DATA, HAS BEEN USED TO HELP PLAN THOSE KIND OF ACTIVITIES. >> RIGHT. >> AND THE OTHER THING IS, EVEN BACK IN THE SHUTTLE DAYS WHEN WE USED TO LAND ON THE EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE LAKE BEDS, YOU KNOW, GENERALLY THEY’RE DRY, BUT THEY’RE STILL A LAKE BED. AND WE WENT BACK AND LOOKED AT A LOT OF THE DATA FOR THAT BECAUSE SOMETIMES THEY WOULD FILL UP WITH WATER AND THOSE TYPICALLY HAPPEN DURING EL NINO YEARS. >> OH. >> WHICH ARE USUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH HEAVIER THAN NORMAL PRECIPITATION AND RAINFALL IN THE DESERT SOUTHWEST IN THE WINTER TIME. SO IF WE KNEW THERE WAS AN EL NINO YEAR COMING UP WE HAD A PRETTY GOOD IDEA THAT WE MIGHT LOSE THE LAKE BEDS AND WE’D HAVE TO LAND IT STRICTLY ON THE CONCRETE RUNWAY OUT THERE. >> OH. >> SO THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS YOU CAN USE CLIMATE DATA FOR, GENERALLY IN THE PLANNING AND DESIGN STAGE FOR JUST ABOUT ANY SPACECRAFT. >> HUH. IS THERE MAJOR CLIMATE CONSIDERATIONS FOR-- OR NOT-- NECESSARILY MAJOR, BUT JUST ANYTHING YOU’RE WATCHING OUT FOR FOR COMMERCIAL CREW LAUNCHES IN THE FUTURE? >> THERE WILL BE, AT LEAST IN THE SORT OF THE SHORTER TIME SPAN BETWEEN WEATHER AND CLIMATE. >> OKAY. >> BECAUSE FOR COMMERCIAL CREW AND ALSO FOR ORION, WHEN WE GO TO THE MOON SOME OF THOSE MISSIONS ARE GOING TO BE VERY LONG DURATION. >> YEAH. >> SO YOU’RE GETTING OUT PAST THE TYPICAL ABILITY TO FORECAST DAY TO DAY WEATHER. SO YOU’RE LOOKING MORE AT WHAT THE WEATHER THREE AND FOUR WEEKS OUT MIGHT BE LIKE. >> MM-HMM. >> AND A LOT OF THAT IS CLIMATE BASED AND YOU CAN USE SOME OF THE LONGER RANGED CLIMATE KIND OF WEATHER PATTERNS, LIKE EL NINO. >> YEAH. >> OR MADDEN-JULIAN OSCILLATIONS, THINGS LIKE THAT THAT HAPPEN IN THE TROPICS TO HELP YOU PREDICT WHAT THE GENERAL TREND THAT WE-- IT MIGHT BE DRYER THAT WEEK. >> OH. >> IT MIGHT BE LESS WINDY THAT WEEK. >> OKAY. >> OR IT MIGHT BE MORE STORMY, WHICH WOULD DRIVE MORE HIGHER OCEAN WAVES, THAT SORT OF THING. >> HMM. >> WE DO LOOK AT SOME OF THAT KIND OF DATA AS WELL, EVEN IN THE OPERATIONS. >> SO WHEN YOU SAY BEYOND YOUR CAPACITY TO LOOK FOR WEATHER, BECAUSE YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT ORION MISSIONS AND SOME OF THESE MOON MISSIONS ARE SEVERAL DAYS, SEVERAL WEEKS, SO YOU GOT TO PLAN AHEAD, BUT YOU ONLY CAN GO TOWARD A CERTAIN LIMIT. I KNOW WHENEVER I LISTEN TO THE WEATHER FORECAST OR GO AND CHECK IT IT CAN ONLY GO FOR ABOUT TWO WEEKS. AND EVEN THEN IT’S-- YOU THROW YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT SURE. >> YEAH, THE THEORETICAL LIMIT FOR ABOUT A DAY TO DAY KIND OF FORECAST IS ABOUT TWO WEEKS. YOU KNOW, WE’RE NOT EVEN REALLY THAT GOOD YET. >> OKAY. >> WE’VE GOT COMPUTER MODELS THAT’LL SPIT THOSE OUT ALL THE TIME. >> YEAH. >> BUT THERE’S LARGER SCALE, IF YOU LOOK MORE TOWARDS THE MEANS AND EXTREMES, YOU CAN PRESS THAT OUT AND GET A PRETTY GOOD IDEA WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN. >> HMM. >> LIKE I MENTIONED, THREE WEEKS FROM NOW WE EXPECT IT TO BE VERY DRY THAT WEEK. >> YEAH. >> THAT DOESN’T TELL YOU IT’S GOING TO BE 34 DEGREES AT 7:00 A.M. IN THE MORNING, BUT IF YOU’RE JUST INTERESTED IN, “I DON’T WANT IT TO BE WET. I’VE GOT THIS THING SITTING OUTDOORS I CAN’T GET WET. I GOT A PAYLOAD SITTING OUTSIDE THAT CAN’T GET WET.” >> OH, YEAH. >> THAT’S THE KIND OF GOOD THING TO KNOW AS WELL. >> OKAY, COOL. SO, BESIDES LAUNCHES, AND LANDINGS, AND PLANNING FOR FORECASTS, WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS HERE AT THE CENTER? BECAUSE WE HAVE MISSION CONTROL AND MISSION CONTROL HAS TO MAKE SURE THAT WE’RE OPERATING. SO I’M GUESSING THERE’S CERTAIN IMPLICATIONS FOR WEATHER HERE AT THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER? >> YES, I DO MAINTAIN A BASIC SORT OF WEATHER WATCH WHENEVER I’M ON DUTY FOR THE SPACE CENTER. >> OKAY. >> AND FOR THOSE ON SITE, IF YOU RECEIVE THOSE EMAIL WARNINGS FROM [ INDISTINCT ]. SOME PEOPLE USUALLY PASS THOSE ON. AND FOR THE LIGHTNING ALERTS, OR SOME SEVERE WEATHER, I’LL BE THE ONE GENERALLY SENDING THOSE OUT. >> OKAY. >> AS A MATTER OF FACT, I THINK TI HAS MY NAME ON THE BOTTOM OF IT. >> YEAH. >> AND THAT’S GENERALLY DONE FOR EVERYONE’S PERSONAL SAFETY HERE ON THE CENTER. >> OKAY. >> FOR THE MISSION CONTROL TEAM AND THE-- A LARGE PART OF THAT IS TO MAINTAIN SO THAT THEY KNOW IF THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE ANY POWER OUTAGES COMING THEIR WAY. >> HMM. >> AND ALSO, FOR SOME OF THE MEDIA PLANNING FOR SOME OF THEIR COMMUNICATIONS TO AND FROM THE SPACECRAFT, ESPECIALLY THE ISS, I’LL MONITOR THE LOCAL WEATHER AND ALSO WEATHER AT SOME OF THE TDRS DOWNLINK SITES. >> OH, THAT’S RIGHT. >> WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE. >> YEAH. >> AND ALSO, OVER AT GUAM. THEY HAVE ANOTHER ANTENNA. >> OKAY. >> SO I MONITOR THAT, BUT FOR TROPICAL SEASON, FOR LIKE HURRICANES, THE ISS FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM, IF THEY NEED TO THEY CAN SHUT DOWN THE CENTER. THEY CAN RELOCATE AND SET UP SHOP SOMEPLACE ELSE REMOTELY AND STILL CONTROL THE SPACE STATION. >> RIGHT. >> AND PART OF THAT PLANNING IS, “WELL, WE WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE HURRICANE’S GOING TO GO.” >> YEAH. >> SO I’LL BRIEF THE FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM HERE, AS WELL AS THE CENTER DIRECTOR AND THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FOLKS HERE AT JSC ON THE POTENTIAL OF THE HURRICANE’S TRACK. AND I’LL TAILOR IT SO IT’S SPECIFIC TO THE CENTER ITSELF AND OUR OPERATIONS. >> OKAY, I SEE. >> SO WHAT WAS HARVEY LIKE THEN? BECAUSE I KNOW HARVEY WAS PRETTY RECENT AND-- >> HARVEY WAS VERY RECENT. THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT HARVEY IS OVER THE FOUR DAYS THAT IT RAINED AROUND HERE WE GOT-- IT WAS 40-- I WROTE IT DOWN, BROUGHT IT WITH ME BECAUSE I COULDN’T REMEMBER-- 42.99 INCHES OF RAIN HERE AT JSC. >> WHOA! >> WHICH EASILY SET A RECORD. WE HAD 20.72 INCHES THAT OCCURRED IN ONE DAY. >> WHOA. >> SO THAT’S OVER A FOOT AND A HALF OF RAIN IN ONE DAY. >> YEAH. >> NEARLY FOUR FEET OVER THE COURSE OF FOUR DAYS. SO I SENT OUT SOME MESSAGES AND BRIEFED THE CENTER DIRECTORS AND THE EMERGENCY MANAGERS HERE AT JSC DURING THE STORM. >> MM-HMM. >> I ALSO MAINTAINED THESE OBSERVATIONS, WHICH I DON’T KNOW YOUR LISTENERS IF THEY’RE INTERESTED, IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT THE WEATHER IS HERE AT JSC, PARTICULARLY ON BUILDING 30, THERE’S SOME WEATHER INSTRUMENTATION THAT THE CENTER OF OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE MAINTAINS.AND I TAKE THAT DATA AND I POST IT OUT INTO THE WORLD WIDE WEB. >> OKAY. >> SO YOU CAN GO TO WEATHER.GOV/SMG/BLDG30-- BUILDING 30. >> OKAY. >> AND IT’LL GIVE YOU THE LATEST WEATHER FROM THE ROOFTOP. SO I MAINTAIN THAT DATA GOING OUT FOR EVERYONE TO USE. >> YEAH. >> GOT ANOTHER RAIN GAUGE HERE ON SITE, AN OLD STYLE RAIN GAUGE OUT NEAR BUILDING 421. INTERESTING THING DURING HARVEY WAS, I CAME OUT ON SATURDAY TO EMPTY THAT RAIN GAUGE, BECAUSE IT HOLDS 11 INCHES AND I FIGURED IT MIGHT FILL UP. >> YEAH. >> SO I DUMPED IT OUT AND IT HAD ABOUT 7 OR 8 INCHES. AFTER THAT, I COULDN’T GET BACK ON SITE. >> OH, THAT’S RIGHT. >> YEAH, SO THAT ONE I DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH IT HAD IN IT. BUT THE RAIN GAUGE ON TOP OF THE ROOF, IT’S WHAT WE CALL A TIPPING BUCKET. IT CONTINUOUSLY MEASURES. SO THAT’S THE ONE WE KNOW WHERE WE GOT 42.99 INCHES OF RAIN. >> OH, OKAY. >> WHICH IS QUITE A LOT OF RAIN. >> YEAH, YOU SAID RECORD-- >> BUT, OVERALL, THE FLOODING HERE ON SITE, DIRECTLY ON SITE, WASN’T TOO BAD, FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND. >> OKAY. >> JUST COULDN’T GET HERE. >> YEAH. >> OR LEAVE HERE. >> DID YOU HAVE ANY-- DID YOU ADVISE WHETHER TO SHUT DOWN THE CENTER OR ANY SORT OF-- DID YOU HAVE ANY CONTINGENCY PLANS IN PLACE KNOWING THE WEATHER? >> YEAH, LEADING UP TO IT, BRIEFED THE CENTER OF OPERATIONS FOLKS AND THE ISS CONTROL TEAM. >> OKAY. >> AND ALSO, BRIEFED THE FLIGHT OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE FOLKS THAT ARE IN CHARGE OF THE AIRCRAFT OUT AT ELLINGTON FIELD. >> OH, THAT’S RIGHT. >> WHETHER OR NOT THEY WANT TO MOVE SOME OF THE AIRCRAFT. >> YEAH. >> MOST OF THEM REMAINED ON SITE BECAUSE IT WASN’T GOING TO BE A HIGH WIND EVENT. IT WAS MOSTLY GOING TO BE A HEAVY RAIN EVENT FROM HARVEY AROUND HERE. SO MOST OF THOSE PLANES WERE LEFT THERE. A FEW OF THEM FLEW OUT. >> YEAH. >> SO A LOT OF FOLKS ON SITE GOT BRIEFINGS ON THAT. DID THAT LEADING UP TO IT. OVER THE WEEKEND WHEN IT WAS RAINING AND NO ONE COULD GET INTO WORK, FORTUNATELY FOR ME, I WORKED REMOTELY. I HAD REMOTE ACCESS TO MY WEATHER SYSTEMS HERE ON SITE. >> OH, GOOD, YOU HAD A CONNECTION. >> I HAD A CONNECTION. >> YEAH. >> I COULD USE ALMOST EVERYTHING I COULD BY-- THAT I COULD USE WHEN I’M SITTING HERE. >> YEAH. >> NOT EVERYTHING, BUT PRETTY CLOSE TO IT. >> THAT’S GOOD. >> SO I WAS ABLE TO CONTINUE THE WEATHER BRIEFINGS AND SEND OUT THE JSC EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM MESSAGES FROM HOME. >> RIGHT. >> YEAH, SO THAT’S ONE UNIQUE WAY OF DOING-- WORKING FROM HOME, I GUESS. >> YEAH. NO, IT WAS COMPLETELY NECESSARY, RIGHT? BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDED TO STAY SAFE DURING THAT WHOLE THING. >> YES. >> BUT, YOU HAVE INSTRUMENTATION THAT’S SPECIFIC TO JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, RIGHT? >> YES. >> SO WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING AT THIS DATA YOU CAN MAKE DECISIONS BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT IT’S GOING TO IMPACT THIS EXACT AREA. ARE THERE INSTRUMENTS THAT KIND OF DO THE SAME THING ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, TOO? >> OH, YEAH. >> YEAH. >> YEAH. >> YEAH. >> THE NICE THING ABOUT JSC AND ESPECIALLY HARRIS COUNTY, THE COUNTY OFFICIALS HERE AROUND HOUSTON THEY MAINTAIN A REALLY DENSE NETWORK OF RAIN GAUGES AND STREAM GAUGES SO THEY KNOW HOW MUCH RAIN’S FALLING. IT’S THE HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT. >> OKAY. >> THEY’RE REALLY GOOD AT THEIR JOB TOO, BY THE WAY. >> YEAH. >> AND SO, YOU REALLY GOT A PRETTY GOOD IDEA WHERE IT’S FLOODING AND HOW HARD THE RAIN’S COMING DOWN JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA AROUND HERE. >> WOW. >> YEAH. >> ALL RIGHT. WELL, COMPLETELY NECESSARY FOR HOUSTON, TEXAS. >> YES, IT IS. IT FLOODS A LOT HERE. WHEN IT RAINS IT RAINS A LOT. I LEARNED THAT WHEN I MOVED DOWN HERE. >> YEAH. >> ANY BIG LESSONS THAT YOU LEARNED OR SOME JUST FASCINATING FINDINGS FROM THIS RECORD SETTING STORM? >> JUST HOW MUCH IT RAINED! >> YEAH. >> THE ODD THING WAS, WE HAD FORECAST GUIDANCE THAT SUGGESTED IT COULD BE THAT HIGH, BUT NO ONE QUITE BELIEVED IT WAS GOING TO BE THAT MUCH. >> RIGHT. >> OF COURSE, WHEN YOU’RE TELLING SOMEBODY IT’S GOING TO RAIN 20 INCHES IN A COUPLE OF DAYS, THAT’S STILL REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD. >> YEAH. >> BUT TO SEE 40 AND UPWARDS OF-- A FEW REPORTS OF OVER 50 INCHES IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA, THAT WAS JUST TRULY AMAZING. >> OH, THAT’S RIGHT, BECAUSE THE 40 WAS JUST AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER. >> YES. >> YEAH, THAT’S NOT EVEN CONSIDERING OTHER PLACES. >> AND THE SHEER GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT OF THE 30-PLUS INCHES RAINFALL AMOUNTS IS MIND BOGGLING. >> YEAH. >> AND I SAW SOME REPORTS FROM SOME GPS SENSORS THAT THE WEIGHT OF THE WATER ENOUGH WAS MEASURABLE IN THE AMOUNT THAT IT SUNK THE EARTH FOR A FEW DAYS FROM THE WATER RISING. >> RIGHT. >> RESIDING ON TOP. IT WAS-- >> THE ELEVATED [ INDISTINCT ] OF HOUSTON WENT DOWN BY LIKE A CENTIMETER OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. >> YEAH. > YEAH. > YEAH, THAT’S JUST MIND BOGGLING. >> YEAH. >> TO USE THAT WORD AGAIN. >> RIGHT. HOW MANY-- WHAT WAS THE-- WHAT-- I DON’T-- I FORGET THE NUMBER OF GALLONS. IT WAS 50 TRILLION, OR SOMETHING? >> IT’S A HUGE AMOUNT. >> YEAH, IT WAS. >> YOU COULDN’T DRINK IT, I KNOW THAT. >> OH, MAN. IT WAS A LOT THOUGH. WHAT ARE WE LEARNING ABOUT HURRICANES AND HOW THEY AFFECT MISSION OPERATIONS? SO WHAT’S THE BACKUP PLAN IF-- I GUESS THE PLAN RIGHT HERE WAS FOR THE FLIGHT CONTROLLERS IN-- >> THE REMAINED IN PLACE. >> THE REMAINED IN PLACE, RIGHT? >> YEAH. >> AND THEY WERE DOING EVERYTHING. NOBODY LEAVES. THEY SET UP COTS AND EVERYTHING, RIGHT? >> YES, THEY DID-- THEY DID, LARGELY BECAUSE WE EXPECTED IT TO BE A HEAVY RAIN EVENT. >> YEAH. >> IF IT HAD BEEN MORE OF A STRONGER STORM-- IF HARVEY WOULD’VE COME ASHORE AROUND HOUSTON INSTEAD OF DOWN NEAR ROCKPORT AND CORPUS CHRISTI, WE PROBABLY WOULD’VE SHUT THE CENTER DOWN COMPLETELY AND THEY WOULD’VE RELOCATED. >> OH. >> BECAUSE IN THAT CASE, IT’D BEEN A HIGH WIND EVENT AS WELL. BECAUSE IT CAME ASHORE AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE, I BELIEVE. >> YEAH. >> AND YOU WOULD’VE HAD SOME STORM SURGE PROBLEMS AS WELL. YOU KNOW, YOU WOULD’VE HAD WATER PUSHED UP INTO GALVESTON BAY AND THAT WOULD’VE GOTTEN INTO CLEAR CREEK AND WATER WOULD’VE COME ON SITE. >> HUH. >> NOW, THE SITE DOES HAVE SOME MEASURES TO PROTECT SOME OF THE CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FROM STORM SURGE, BUT YOU’D BE LOSING POWER, YOU’D HAVE TO BE ON BACKUP POWER. AND THEN, EVEN THEN YOUR BACKUP POWER IT’S-- THE WATER LEVELS ROSE ENOUGH FROM THE STORM SURGE BEING PUSHED IN YOU COULD LOSE SOME OF YOUR GENERATORS WE WELL. >> OH, YEAH. >> THE INTERESTING THING IS IF YOU’VE EVER VISITED THE MISSION CONTROL CENTER, ESPECIALLY IN THE LOBBY, WHEN YOU WALK IN YOU’LL SEE SOME GATES THAT ARE LYING FLAT ON THE GROUND. THOSE ARE DESIGNED FOR A HURRICANE STORM SURGE. THEY’LL-- IF WE EXPECT A LARGE ENOUGH STORM OR A POWERFUL ENOUGH STORM, THEY’LL RAISE THOSE LITTLE GATES UP AND THAT’LL KEEP WATER FROM COMING INTO THE GROUND FLOOR OF THE BUILDING. >> OH, WOW. >> YEAH, YOU CAN SEE THOSE AS YOU WALK INTO THE LOBBY. THEY WERE PUT IN 5 TO 6 MAYBE 10 YEARS AGO. >> OKAY. >> BUT YEAH, SO THE BUILDING HAS GOT SOME PROTECTION FROM RISING WATERS. >> RIGHT. >> MOST OF THEM ARE DESIGNED FOR SOME DECENT WIND SPEEDS AS WELL I THINK. THE WEAKEST PART OF THE STRUCTURE THERE IS DESIGNED FOR 90 MILES AN HOUR. BUT THE MAIN PART OF THE MCC CAN WITHSTAND MUCH MORE THAN THAT, I THINK. >> WOW. ALL RIGHT, WELL, SOUNDS LIKE THEY HAVE A LOT OF PROTECTION JUST FOR THE BUILDING ITSELF, BUT THEN THERE’S BACKUP PLANS, RIGHT? >> YEAH. >> IN CASE-- IF THEY DO, FOR WHATEVER REASON, EVACUATE THE CENTER, JUST GET OUT, THEY CAN OPERATE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FROM REMOTE LOCATIONS, RIGHT? >> YES, THEY CAN. THEY’VE GOT A COMPLETE WAY OF DOING IT FROM HOTELS. >> YEAH. >> AS I UNDERSTAND. >> WOW. >> THEY CAN MOVE FURTHER INLAND HERE IN TEXAS AND DO MOST OF THE CONTROLS REMOTELY. THEY’LL SET THAT UP AND THEY’LL BE IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER AT THE HOSC OVER THERE. >> MM-HMM. >> AND THEN IN CONTACT WITH THE RUSSIAN CONTROL ROOM AS WELL. >> MM-HMM. >> SO THEY CAN-- IN CERTAIN THINGS THAT THEY MAY OR MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL. THEY COULD STILL PASS OFF TO EITHER-- TO THE RUSSIAN CONTROL ROOM OR TO THE HOSC AS WELL. BUT I THINK NEARLY EVERYTHING THEY CAN CONTROL REMOTELY. THEY’LL TAKE A WHOLE BUNCH OF LAPTOPS AND SEND PEOPLE OUT AND RUN IT SOMEWHERE DEEP IN SOUTH TEXAS OR CENTRAL TEXAS. >> WOW. JUST HURRICANES IN GENERAL AND HOW THEY AFFECT THE COAST, JUST THESE PAST HURRICANES OVER JUST 2017, INCLUDING MARIA AND ALL THESE THAT SWEPT BY, I’M SURE THE NOAA-- THE GOES-16 SATELLITE WAS CHECKING OUT SOME DATA THERE, BUT IS THERE SOME SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS THAT WE FOUND FROM SOME OF THE HURRICANES THIS YEAR? >> WELL, THERE WAS A LOT OF THEM. >> YEAH, YEAH. >> I THINK THAT’LL WAIT UNTIL THE SEASON’S OVER TO ANALYZE SOME OF THE DATA. >> I SEE. >> ONE OF THE INTERESTING THINGS THEY’VE DONE A LOT THIS YEAR THOUGH IS A COMBINATION BETWEEN THE NOAA AND NASA. NASA’S BEEN FLYING SOME UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES AROUND HURRICANES AND ABOVE THEM, AND THEY’RE DROPPING WHAT’S CALLED A DROPSON. IT’S ESSENTIALLY A WEATHER BALLOON IN REVERSE. IT’S ON A PARACHUTE. AND THE UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE, IT CAN DROP LIKE 60 TO 100 OF THESE LITTLE THINGS AROUND THE STORM AND BE UP THERE IN THE AIR AROUND IT FOR 12 TO 24 HOURS. SO YOU CAN COLLECT LOTS AND LOTS OF DATA ON THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT SURROUNDING THE HURRICANE SO YOU KNOW WHAT IS STEERING IT AROUND. >> YEAH. >> SO THERE’S A LOT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES BEING FLOWN BY NASA AND BY NOAA OUT THERE. NOW I THINK SOME OF THAT WILL HELP US GET DATA INTO OUR COMPUTER MODELS AND MAKE BETTER FORECASTS IN THE FUTURE FOR HURRICANES. >> RIGHT. A LOT OF TECHNOLOGIES TO MEASURE, YOU KNOW, A LOT OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. BUT, HAS THERE BEEN ENGINEERING CHALLENGES OR MAYBE MILESTONES TO COUNTER-- BECAUSE YOU SAID-- YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT-- YOU SAID IT WAS APOLLO 12 THAT GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING? >> YES. >> BUT IT KEPT GOING, RIGHT? >> YES. >> SO AND I KNOW THAT I THINK THEY HAD TO FIX SOME THINGS ONCE THEY WERE UP THERE. >> YES, THEY DID. >> YEAH. BUT, WHAT KINDS OF ENGINEERING THINGS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO PROTECT FROM WEATHER? >> A LOT OF THAT’S BEEN PROCEDURAL. >> OH, OKAY. >> A LOT OF IT’S-- YOU GO TO A LOT OF MEETINGS HERE AT NASA AND YOU’LL HEAR ABOUT THE INTEGRATED VEHICLE, MAKING SURE THE LEFT HAND KNOWS WHAT THE RIGHT HAND IS DOING. >> OH. >> SO IF YOU’RE PROTECTED FROM LIGHTNING HERE BUT YOU’RE NOT PROTECTED FOR LIGHTNING OVER HERE, WHAT HAPPENS IF THIS PARTS GETS STRUCK AND IT GETS OVER THROUGH ANOTHER MEANS. >> OH, YEAH. >> SO IT’S PULLING TOGETHER EVERYTHING AS A WHOLE IN TERMS OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT-- LIGHTNING, OR WINDS, OR WHATEVER. A LOT OF THAT’S BEEN PROCEDURAL NOW. THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW TO HARDEN THINGS AGAINST LIGHTNING, BUT THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF TECHNOLOGIES THE EXACT OPPOSITE AS WELL. A LOT OF AIRPLANES USED TO BE MADE OUT OF METAL SKINS. WHEN LIGHTNING WOULD TRICK THE OUTSIDE IT WOULD CONDUCT AROUND THE OUTSIDE, MORE AND MORE COMPOSITE MATERIALS NOW. >> AH. >> THEY DIFFERENTLY THAN METAL. SO A LOT OF ENGINEERING’S GOT TO GO INTO LOOKING AT WHEN YOU USE COMPOSITES, HOW CAN YOU TREAT THAT FOR LIGHTNING STRIKES THAT MIGHT OCCUR IN THE FUTURE. >> OKAY. >> THERE’S LOTS OF LITTLE THINGS THAT YOU-- IT TRICKLES DOWN TO. >> YEAH. A LOT OF THE DATA, A LOT OF THE INSTRUMENTS MEASURE WIND TOO AND WIND SEEMS TO BE JUST A GIANT CONSIDERATION FOR SPACEFLIGHT IN GENERAL. >> YEAH. >> WHICH MAKES SENSE, RIGHT? >> MM-HMM. >> YOU HAVE THINGS GOING UP INTO SPACE AND COMING DOWN FROM SPACE AND WIND’S GOING TO BLOW IT. BUT, ARE THERE WAYS TO SORT OF FIGHT THAT? IS THERE-- I GUESS, TRY TO MAKE IT SO IF YOU’RE GOING TO LAND THERE’S-- YOU HAVE THE BEST CHANCE OF LANDING WHERE YOU WANT TO REGARDLESS OF WIND OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT? >> A LOT OF THAT’S MONITORING. >> MONITORING. >> EITHER WITH WEATHER BALLOONS AND WE USE RADAR WIND PROFILERS NOW. >> OH, OKAY. >> YOU CAN ESSENTIALLY TAKE A PHASED ARRAY RADAR AND POINT IT STRAIGHT UP. YOU CAN GET WIND MEASUREMENTS FROM THAT, EVEN IN CLEAR AIR. >> AH. >> AND THERE’S ONE OF THOSE THAT’S OPERATED OUT OF THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, REALLY LARGE ONES. THE ANTENNA’S A BUNCH OF WIRES LAYING OUT IN A FIELD. AND IT MEASURES WINDS UP TO 60,000 FEET AND YOU GET SOME ABOUT EVERY FIVE TO SIX MINUTES. >> HMM. >> WHICH IS REALLY, REALLY FREQUENT. >> YEAH. >> SO IF YOU DESIGN THINGS FOR YOUR TRAJECTORY-- THE WAY THINGS ARE STILL DONE TODAY IN LARGE PART IS YOU MEASURE THE WINDS AND YOU KNOW FROM PAST EXPERIENCE HOW MUCH THEY CHANGE IN TWO HOURS AND FOUR HOURS, AND YOU PROTECT AGAINST THAT STATISTICALLY. BUT, IF YOU CAN PUSH THAT FURTHER AND FURTHER TO LAUNCH TIME BECAUSE YOU CAN MEASURE IT MORE FREQUENTLY YOU CAN SAVE A LOT OF LAUNCHES BECAUSE YOU CAN SAY, “OH, WELL, I’M PROTECTING WAY TOO MUCH HERE, OR I’M NOT PROTECTING ENOUGH BECAUSE I CAN SEE CHANGES THAT ARE ARRIVING.” >> AH. >> WITH A WEATHER BALLOON YOU’D HAVE TO RELEASE IT, AND FOR ONE THING, IT’S BLOWING DOWN RANGE. IT'S NOT DIRECTLY OVERHEAD. >> YEAH. >> SO IF THE WINDS ARE HIGH AND HOUR INTO THE FLIGHT THE BALLOON COULD BE 50, 60 MILES AWAY, AND THAT’S WHERE YOU’RE REALLY MEASURING THE WIND INSTEAD OF LIKE OVERHEAD. >> WHERE YOU NEED TO. >> WITH A PROFILER, IT’S PRETTY MUCH STRAIGHT OVERHEAD. >> OKAY. >> AIRCRAFT CAN MEASURE WINDS AS WELL. >> MM-HMM. >> EVEN THE SATELLITES, YOU CAN TRACK CLOUD ELEMENTS AND YOU CAN GET AN IDEA WHAT THE WIND SPEEDS ARE AT CERTAIN HEIGHTS AS WELL. >> RIGHT. >> THERE’S A LOT OF WAYS TO DO THAT. AND EVEN THE USUAL RADARS THAT WE USE FOR WEATHER TO DETECT CLOUDS AND STORMS IN MOTION. >> YEAH. >> THEY’LL MEASURE WINDS AS WELL. >> WOW. >> THERE’S A LOT OF WAYS TO DO IT NOW. >> IS THERE OTHER PARTS OF THE ECONOMY WHERE ALL OF THIS DATA IS BEING BROUGHT INTO? I’M SURE THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY MUST HAVE SOME, RIGHT? >> OH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. THERE’S A LARGE PRIVATE WEATHER INDUSTRY OUT THERE. A LOT OF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT IT. MOST PEOPLE THINK THERE’S ONLY TWO, WELL, MAYBE THREE THINGS IN WEATHER. THERE’S THE GUY I SEE ON TELEVISION. MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION I ALWAYS GET WHEN I TELL THEM I’M A METEOROLOGIST IS, “WHAT CHANNEL DO YOU WORK ON?” >> YEAH. >> AND THEN, THE SECOND ONE IS, “OH, YOU WORK FOR THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OR THE MILITARY.” >> MM-HMM. >> BECAUSE THEY EMPLOY A LOT-- OR YOU KNOW, “YOU TEACH.” >> OH, YOU TEACH. >> BUT, THERE’S A LARGE PRIVATE WEATHER INDUSTRY OUT THERE THAT TAILOR WEATHER INFORMATION TO SPECIFIC INDUSTRIES. A LOT OF THAT DOES WITH ENERGY TRADING. >> HMM. >> THEY’LL ADVISE. IF YOU’VE GOT A PRETTY GOOD IDEA THAT TWO WEEKS FROM NOW IT’S GOING TO BE MUCH COLDER THAN NORMAL IN THE NORTHEAST, YOU CAN GO OUT AND BUY A LOT OF FUEL OIL AND YOU TRADE THAT JUST LIKE ANYTHING. IT’S ANOTHER PIECE OF INFORMATION TO HELP YOU BUY FUTURES, FOR EXAMPLE. >> OKAY. >> THERE’S-- IT’S A BIG SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY. THE MORE I LEARN ABOUT THAT THE MORE I’M AMAZED AT HOW LARGE IT IS. >> YEAH. >> THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, THEY WANT TO KNOW WHERE HAIL STORMS HAVE OCCURRED. >> OH, YEAH. >> TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY, OF COURSE-- MANY, MANY YEARS AGO I WORKED FOR A PRIVATE WEATHER FIRM. >> OKAY. THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY LOVED US. >> OH. >> IF THERE WAS A BIG SNOW STORM IN THE MIDWEST THEY COULD REROUTE ALL THEIR TRUCKS, DRIVE FURTHER SOUTH, AND THEY WOULDN’T GET STUCK FOR DAYS ON END. >> RIGHT. >> SO AND THEN OF COURSE IF YOU’VE EVER FLOWN ON AN AIRPLANE YOU’VE HAD A WEATHER DELAY. >> THAT’S RIGHT. IT’S PRETTY EXPANSIVE. BECAUSE WEATHER AFFECTS-- I GUESS YOU COULD SAY WEATHER AFFECTS EVERYONE. >> JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY. >> YEAH, HOW ABOUT THAT. AWESOME. SO WHAT’S YOUR BACKGROUND? HOW DID YOU GET TO GO INTO METEOROLOGY AND HOW DID YOU END UP IN SPACEFLIGHT? >> WELL, IT’S INTERESTING THAT MOST OF THE PEOPLE I’VE THAT ARE METEOROLOGISTS, THERE’S ONLY GENERALLY TWO KINDS OF THOSE. NOT COMPLETELY TRUE, BUT-- THERE’S THOSE THAT, “WELL, I WAS IN THE MILITARY AND I HAD A MATH AND PHYSICS BACKGROUND. THEY MADE ME ONE.” >> OH. >> AND THEN THERE’S THE, “THAT’S ALL I EVER WANTED TO DO.” WELL, I’M ONE OF THAT, THAT’S ALL I EVER WANTED TO DO. >> OH, COOL. >> EVER SINCE I WAS A CHILD, THAT’S THE ONLY THING I EVER WANTED TO DO. >> COOL. >> AND FORTUNATELY, I WAS ABLE TO DO THAT. >> YEAH. >> AND I THINK IT WAS LARGELY-- I GREW UP IN OKLAHOMA, SO YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT TORNADOS. >> OH, YEAH. >> WELL, I TAKE THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT THAT WAS GROWING UP IN OKLAHOMA AS A CHILD, WENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, STUDIES METEOROLOGY, NEVER SAW A TORNADO. >> REALLY? >> NEVER. >> I WAS WAITING FOR A GOOD TORNADO STORY TO SAY THAT’S WHAT INSPIRED YOU. >> WELL, THEN-- WELL, BEING SCARED BY THEM, THAT WAS PART OF THE DEAL THAT MADE ME DO THAT. >> OH, SURE. >> BUT MY FIRST JOB AT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, I WAS STATIONED IN AMARILLO, TEXAS, AND WE GOT A RADAR INDICATION OF A TORNADO. >> HUH. >> SO WE ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING FOR THE COUNTY WE WERE IN, AND SOMEBODY LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW AND GOES, “HEY, THERE IT IS.” SO THAT WAS THE FIRST ONE I SAW. >> WAS IN AMARILLO, TEXAS. >> YEAH, WAS IN AMARILLO. THE SECOND ONE WAS A WATERSPOUT AT GALVESTON BAY, WHICH WE SEE FROM TIME TO TIME. >> OH, OKAY. >> YEAH. >> MATTER OF FACT, JUST THIS SUMMER SOMEONE SENT A PICTURE TO ME OF ALONGSIDE OF A WATERSPOUT OVER CLEAR LAKE. >> WHAT? >> YEAH. >> I’VE GOT SEVERAL PICTURES OF WATERSPOUTS FROM OVER GALVESTON BAY AND CLEAR LAKE THAT ARE NEARBY US OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS. >> OH, MAN, CLOSE TO HOME. >> SINCE 2000, WE’VE HAD FIVE MAYBE 6 OF THEM WE’VE SEEN FROM JSC. >> FIVE MAYBE SIX IN THE PAST 17 YEARS? OKAY. >> YEAH. SO IT’S NOT ENTIRELY UNCOMMON. >> OKAY. >> BUT, IT’S NOT COMMON EITHER. >> RIGHT. >> BUT YEAH, SO WE DO HAVE THEM HERE AS WELL. >> HMM. >> SO THAT’S WHAT GOT ME INTERESTED INTO IT. I WENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, STUDIED METEOROLOGY. WE’RE WELL KNOWN FOR SEVERE STORMS. THEN, WORKED FOR A PRIVATE WEATHER COMPANY FOR A WHILE, THEN JOINED THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, AND SAW AN OPENING FOR TECHNIQUES DEVELOPMENT METEOROLOGIST AT THE SPACEFLIGHT METEOROLOGY GROUP. DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT. NEVER HEARD OF IT. >> YEAH. >> SO I APPLIED. SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE I MUST’VE GOT THE APPLICATIONS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND THEY HIRED ME. AND I CAME IN AS A TECHNIQUE'S DEVELOPMENT METEOROLOGIST, WHICH MEANT I WAS DEVELOPING FORECAST TECHNIQUES AND WORKED WITH THE COMPUTER SYSTEMS TO MAKE THEM FRIENDLIER FOR THE LEAD FORECASTERS WHO DID THE ACTUAL FORECASTING FOR THE LAUNCHES AND THE-- OR FOR THE ABORT LANDINGS AND FOR THE END OF MISSION LANDINGS FOR THE SPACE SHUTTLE. AND ABOUT A YEAR AND HALF INTO THAT I WAS PROMOTED TO BE ONE OF THE LEAD FORECASTERS, AND SINCE THEN I’VE GROWN UP TO BE THE METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE. >> ALL RIGHT. >> I’VE GONE FROM THE GROUND FLOOR TO THE PENTHOUSE ALL AT SMG. >> VERY COOL. SO HOW HAS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY CHANGED FROM WHEN YOU FIRST CAME HERE AND YOU SAID YOU WERE WORKING 90-SOMETHING SHUTTLES LAUNCHES. >> NINETY-TWO MISSIONS. >> NINETY-TWO SHUTTLE MISSIONS TO METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE. >> WELL, GIVEN THE CURRENT STAFFING, I’M THE METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE OF MYSELF. THE SIZE OF THE OFFICE HAS WAXED AND WANED WITH THE AMOUNT OF FLIGHTS WE’VE GOT GOING. >> I SEE. >> SO FOR RIGHT NOW, I’M DOING EVERYTHING. >> OH, WOW. >> SO THAT’S-- SO I MANAGE THE COMPUTER SYSTEMS, I’M THE PROPERTY CUSTODIAN, NEVER A GOOD JOB TO HAVE. AND SO, I DO ALL OF THE FORECASTING OUT FOR ALL THE PROJECTS AND TESTS THAT WE’RE SUPPORTING. I’M PRETTY MUCH DOING EVERYTHING NOW, SO I’VE LEARNED A LOT OF MANAGEMENT SIDE OF THINGS. >> YEAH. >> AND HOPEFULLY SOONER OR LATER THE OFFICE WILL EXPAND AGAIN BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF FLIGHTS WE’LL HAVE AND PROGRAMS WE’RE SUPPORTING. THAT’S REALLY STARTING TO RAMP UP NOW. WE’RE DOING MORE AND MORE TEST SUPPORT, QUALIFICATION TESTS, AND THE ACTUAL LAUNCHES AND LANDINGS AREN'T TOO FAR AWAY NOW SO WE’LL NEED SOME EXTRA PEOPLE THAT-- >> OH, THAT’S RIGHT. >> IT WON’T BE AS MANY AS THE SHUTTLE. THE NEW VEHICLES ARE LESS WEATHER SENSITIVE THAN THE SHUTTLE, THAT’S ONE THING I’VE NOTICED SO FAR. AND THAT’S A GOOD THING. >> OH, YEAH. THAT’S VERY TRUE. SO HAVE YOU GONE OUT TO SOME OF THE TESTS TO SEE HOW EVERYTHING’S WORKING? >> YES, I HAVE. >> OH, OKAY. >> I’VE BEEN OUT TO SEE ONE OF THE PARACHUTE QUALIFICATION TESTS FOR THE ORION CAPSULE. >> OKAY. >> OUT OF YUMA PROVING GROUNDS. WE WERE VERY, VERY CLOSE TO THE ACTION. >> YEAH. >> ENOUGH SO THAT SOMEONE DROVE BY AND SAID, “ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE HERE?” SO I SAID, “YEAH.” THE WEATHER CHECK IS REALLY, REALLY CLOSE. >> WOW. >> BECAUSE THEY’RE RELEASING WEATHER BALLOONS FOR THE-- TO MEASURE THE UPPER WINDS. >> YEAH, THIS IS IN YUMA, UTAH, RIGHT? >> YEAH, YUMA, ARIZONA. >> OH, ARIZONA. >> YUP. >> OKAY, OKAY. >> THE FUNNY THING I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT THOUGH WAS I HAD PARKED A RENTAL CAR THERE AND I SEE CAPSULE COMING DOWN WITH THE PARACHUTES AND IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S REALLY CLOSE. >> YEAH. >> AND MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS, “IT’S GOING TO-- HOW AM I GOING TO EXPLAIN TO THE RENTAL CAR COMPANY A SPACESHIP FEEL ON THE CAR?” FORTUNATELY, THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN. >> YEAH. DID YOU GET THE SPACESHIP INSURANCE THOUGH WHEN YOU CHECKED IT OUT? >> NO, I DID NOT GET THAT, NO. >> OKAY. >> AND I’VE BEEN OUT ON BOARD SOME OF THE NAVY SHIPS THAT WE USED TO RECOVER THE EFT-1 FLIGHT, THAT SPACE CAPSULE FROM-- >> OH. >> YEAH, SO I WAS THE FORECASTER FOR THAT MISSION AS WELL HERE AT JSC. >> YEAH, THAT WAS OUT-- DID IT LAND IN THE PACIFIC? >> LANDED OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, ABOUT 600, 700 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BAJA, CALIFORNIA. >> ALL RIGHT. >> OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. NOT FAR FROM WHERE SHARKS LIKE TO HANG OUT, FOR SOME REASON. >> OH. >> THE OCEANOGRAPHIC THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE MISSION. BUT YEAH, I GOT TO GO OUT ON BOARD THAT SHIP AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE WE WANTED TO PLACE SOME SPECIAL WEATHER EQUIPMENT ON BOARD. >> OKAY. >> WE ENDED UP PUTTING IT RIGHT NEAR THE-- RIGHT ABOVE THE HANGAR ON THE BACK OF THE SHIP, SO IT WORKED OUT PRETTY WELL. THE NAVY’S PRETTY HANDY WITH THEIR STUFF. THEY KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING OUT THERE. >> ALL RIGHT. >> ONE THING-- UNIQUE THING ABOUT THAT IS FOR THINGS THAT SPLASH DOWN, YOU SEND THE PEOPLE AND EQUIPMENT OUT, IF SOMETHING BREAKS YOU CAN’T GO TO THE STORE TO BUY SOMETHING. IT’S GOT TO BE WITH YOU. SO YOU GOT TO PLAN FOR EVERY LAST CONTINGENCY WHILE YOU’RE OUT THERE. >> OH, WOW. >> YEAH. >> YEAH. >> SO, DID YOU ENCOUNTER LIKE A FAILURE THAT YOU HAD TO KIND OF DEAL WITH? OR YOU WERE PREPARED? >> WE WERE PRETTY WELL PREPARED. >> COOL. >> WE HAD A METEOROLOGICAL-- METEOROLOGIST FROM YUMA GO OUT AND RELEASE THE BALLOONS FROM THE SHIP FOR US. >> OKAY. >> AND ONE OF THE THINGS HE LEARNED WAS YOU CAN’T TAKE LITHIUM BATTERIES OUT ON THE SHIP. >> AH. >> THEY DON’T LIKE THOSE ON THE AIRPLANES EITHER ANYMORE. >> YEAH, RIGHT. >> AND HE HAD AN EXTENSION CORD WHICH DIDN’T MEET STANDARDS. >> OH. >> FORTUNATELY, THEY LOAN YOU ONE, SO WE LEARNED QUITE A BIT FROM THAT. >> OKAY. >> AND WE’LL BE ABLE TO USE FOR FUTURE ORION AS WELL. >> YEAH. TAKE THAT ALL WITH YOU. AWESOME. ALL RIGHT, WELL, I THINK WILL ABOUT WRAP IT UP FOR TODAY. I KNOW I HAVE A LOT MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT WEATHER AND CLIMATE AND ALL THAT KIND OF STUFF, BUT I GUESS WE’LL JUST SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER TIME. BUT HEY, TIM, THANKS FOR COMING ON THE SHOW. THIS WAS REALLY JUST EYE OPENING ABOUT JUST THE WORLD OF WEATHER AND HOW IT AFFECTS HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT AND JUST THE OPERATIONS HERE AT THE CENTER, TOO, BUT JUST ALL OVER THE PLACE. AND SOUNDS LIKE A PRETTY GOOD JOB. I KNOW YOU’RE DOING EVERYTHING, BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU’RE DOING EVERYTHING SO THAT’S KIND OF COOL. >> IT IS A GOOD JOB AND THE MORE YOU LEARN ABOUT WEATHER THE MORE YOU LEARN IT IMPACTS EVERYTHING. >> THAT’S RIGHT. OKAY, WELL, TIM, THANKS SO MUCH FOR BEING ON THE SHOW. >> YOU BET. [ MUSIC ] >> HOUSTON, GO AHEAD. >> TOP OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE. >> ROGER, ZERO-G AND I FEEL FINE. >> SHUTTLE HAS CLEARED THE TOWER. >> WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND. >> IT’S ACTUALLY A HUGE HONOR TO BREAK THE RECORD LIKE THIS. >> NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE EASY, BUT BECAUSE THEY ARE HARD. >> HOUSTON, WELCOME TO SPACE. >> HEY, THANKS FOR STICKING AROUND. SO TODAY, WE TALKED ABOUT WEATHER AND HOW IT AFFECTS HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT WITH TIM GARNER, THE METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE HERE AT THE NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER. SO IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON HERE AT THE CENTER, NASA.GOV/JOHNSON IS A GREAT RESOURCE FOR EVERYTHING NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER. OBVIOUSLY, WE HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS FOR THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER-- FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND INSTAGRAM. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION OR COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAMS AND WHAT’S GOING ON, WE KIND OF ALLUDED TO SOME OF THE DEVELOPMENTS GOING ON IN THE COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM ESPECIALLY. SOON WE’RE GOING TO BE LAUNCHING IN AMERICA, SO IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON THERE JUST GO TO NASA.GOV/COMMERCIALCREW, NASA.GOV/ISS IS ALSO A GOOD RESOURCE, AND OF COURSE ALL OF THOSE ARE ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND INSTAGRAM AS WELL. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, JUST USE THE HASHTAG #ASKNASA ON YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORM. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT THE WEATHER, WE CAN ANSWER IT IN A LATER PODCAST LIKE WE’VE DONE BEFORE. OF IF YOU HAVE A SUGGESTION FOR A TOPIC THAT YOU REALLY WANT US TO COVER, JUST LET US KNOW USING THAT HASHTAG AND JUST MAKE SURE TO USE HWHAP, H-W-H-A-P IN THAT POST SO I CAN FIND IT AND THEN WE CAN MAKE AN EPISODE ON IT. AND FOR EVERYONE SO FAR WHO HAS SUBMITTED SOME IDEAS, THANKS SO MUCH BECAUSE WE’VE ACTUALLY BEEN LOOKING AT THEM AND HAVE ALREADY MADE SOME EPISODES DEDICATED TO SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERED THEM. SO THANKS AGAIN. THIS PODCAST WAS RECORDED ON OCTOBER 25th, 2017. THANKS TO ALEX PERRYMAN, JOHN STOLL, AND JENNY KNOTTS FOR HELPING OUT WITH THE EPISODE. THANKS AGAIN TO MR. TIM GARNER FOR COMING ON THE SHOW. WE’LL BE BACK NEXT WEEK.