Evidence of link between ice melt and earthquakes - 21 Aug 2010

Evidence of link between ice melt and earthquakes.
A team of US scientists have identified climate change and ice sheet melt as the likely causes of several massive 7 to 7.5-magnitude quakes that occurred in 1811 and 1812 along the New Madrid fault in the middle of the North American continent in an area not typically prone to quake activity.

After studying the fault for a decade, the researchers found no evidence of growing pressure that might have ordinarily predicted a future quake. They instead concluded that the pressure was likely built through a geologic event such as the uplift of the Rocky Mountains. Then, at the end of the last Ice Age, when melting sheets flowed down the Mississippi River, the additional water flow washed vast amounts of sediment away, relieving pressure that had been weighing down on the Earth’s crust. This would create conditions for the fault to move, thus releasing the stored pressure and creating the quakes that occurred at that time.

Professor Eric Calais of University of Purdue stated, “We understand why earthquakes happen at the contact between tectonic plates, like in California, but it has always been a puzzle as to why earthquakes occur in the middle of the continent as well, and with no visible surface deformation.

Our theory links an external climate-driven process, the melting of the ice sheet, and earthquakes.”Thank you Professor Calais and colleagues for helping us to understand more about the link between global warming and disruptions like earthquakes.

May we heed this research and act to avoid future disasters by restoring the balance in our ecosphere. During an October 2009 videoconference in Indonesia, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed similar scientific findings regarding temblors in a warming world, and suggested a holistic way to re-stabilize the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Scientists have discovered that earthquakes are linked to global warming. Because, as the ice melts at the poles - you know North and South poles – beneath Greenland, pressure shifts on the Earth's plates that could trigger movement to cause earthquakes.

So, we create the atmosphere we live in. If everyone creates the harmonious atmosphere, our planet will be in peace This will also help protect us.

And also, we should pray to Heavens, to the great mercy of Allah, and the angels, to all divine beings, to help awaken humankind – awaken us so that we understand right from wrong. We understand that we must walk the way of God’s children.

So, please help us, help your loved ones and those around you, to all be veg, and do good deeds.

Earth’s resources run out on August 21.
Saying that humans are using more natural reserves than nature can give, environmental advocacy group, Global Footprint Network, has calculated that our resources are being used at a rate more than 30% higher than what nature has available.

As such, all global resources have been consumed as of August 21, with everything used after today such as water, crops and products from the forests leaving an Earthly deficit.

The scientists estimate that at this rate, reserves will be 100% depleted by 2040, which would be catastrophic. Italian scientist Roberto Brambilla, who is affiliated with the research, has stated that the keys to a better balance include eating less meat, riding a bicycle and using sustainable energy sources.

Our appreciation Dr. Brambilla and Global Footprint Network for this unique view of our current dis-harmony with the planet. Let us all act quickly to preserve both resources and lives by finding ways to live in balance with the Earth.

Extra News
The Secretary-General of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Ahmed Djoghlaf calls upon nations to continue investing in the protection of biodiversity, warning that failing to do so would cost countries both their cultures and their economies.

Spain welcomes the birth of her first European bison after a group of seven of the endangered animals is introduced from Poland to the Spanish mountains of San Cebrian de Muda.


For several years now drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have been heralded as a game-changer for a wide range of industries. And yet, there is assuredly a huge number of decision-makers in that wide range of industries currently looking at industrial drones and wondering how exactly these high flyers are supposed to improve safety, cut costs and increase efficiencies when, in most countries, they can’t even fly out of sight of the pilot. A pilot commanding a high hourly wage, by the way.

However, the question shouldn’t be how are drones going to improve industrial organizations, but when. The answer? When regulations catch up to the technology that’s already available. Fortunately, that could be happening sooner rather than later.

Out of sight, still in mind

BVLOS stands for beyond visual line of sight, and it refers to any drone flight that takes place or extends past the point where the pilot can still see the drone. If you haven’t heard much about this type of drone flight, it’s because it is mostly not allowed.

This is a major holdup for industrial drones because BVLOS flight is what will enable them to complete tasks like long-range infrastructure inspections, mapping and surveying, remote site surveillance and incident response – all tasks that are expensive, onerous and potentially dangerous to complete using traditional methods.

There are some jurisdictions in which industrial organizations are able to have their drones fly BVLOS. Back in March of 2017, Airobotics – pioneering producers of drones for industrial use – was granted a certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel to not only fly fully automated drones, a world first, but to also fly BVLOS. Additionally, Japan was set to scrap a law requiring a safety assistant be present to keep all drone flights VLOS by the end of 2018, and Poland is looking to work with Israel in developing their own legislation to allow BVLOS flights.

The rest of the world is progressing towards BVLOS drone flights more slowly, but the progression is occurring. In many jurisdictions, including Canada, Switzerland, Denmark and South Africa, BVLOS flights are permitted with prior permission from the government, with permission granted on a case by case basis that often involves extensive testing or highly specific site and environmental conditions. In the United States, organizations have to apply for a waiver in order to be allowed to fly BVLOS. It is estimated that 99% of BVLOS waiver applications have been rejected by the Federal Aviation Administration. However, Airobotics recently setting up a new headquarters in Arizona would indicate that relaxed BVLOS regulations may be on the horizon in the US.

The other big development for industry

While legal BVLOS UAV flight will go a long way towards increasing the tasks an industrial drone can complete, it is automation that will enable all tasks to be completed with better cost- and time-efficiency. By making a drone pilot unnecessary, industrial organizations will be able to save the significant cost of either hiring or training a drone pilot, and eliminate the delays associated with waiting for a pilot to respond for a mission, making both scheduled and on-demand flights cheaper and faster. Automated flight also eliminates the chances of human error in flight as well as data collection.

Leading automated drones also do not require human intervention for routine maintenance such as battery changing, and some are even industrial multitools that can change their own sensors in order to make possible a range of tasks and applications. For organizations that require frequent inspections, stockpile evaluation and security and surveillance sweeps of facilities, automated industrial drones are already paying huge dividends.

Preparing to aim high

Industrial drone technology has thus far outpaced the legislation governing their use, and industrial organizations have unfortunately suffered for it in the form of unrealized cost and time savings. However, BVLOS regulations are one of the biggest topics in UAVs, and it won’t be long before BVLOS flight is a highly beneficial reality for industries all over the world. For now, it’s just a matter of watching the clock until industrial drones are truly able to change the game.


How Virginia Beach Police Prove Speeding

Virginia Beach regularly uses radar tools to detect speeding. The most common of these tools is the stationary radar, which means the officers use the radar and detect someone’s speed while a police cruiser is not moving. Most radar can be used while the officer is moving as well. The results produced by speeding instruments are presented in court and have a major influence on how people are charged and/or convicted; this is especially important in Virginia where excessive speeding is classified as reckless driving, a class 1 misdemeanor. Speak with a Virginia Beach reckless driving lawyer today for more information about how local law enforcement prove speeding.

Evidence Used to Prove Speeding in Virginia Beach

An officer can prove that they were recording your vehicle’s speed by testifying in court with evidence that will support that they were in fact recording the speed of the vehicle. The strongest evidence to support this is going to be in the form of what’s called a calibration certificate. A calibration certificate is a document that shows that whatever method the officer was using with the intent to record your speed of your vehicle was functioning properly as it was intended to do. The document is required to have very particular information on it in order to be admissible in court and if it is all correct and done adequately, then it’s enough to prove the speed alleged by the officer.

Virginia Beach law enforcement officers can tell if you’re speeding because they use a variety of different instruments and methods to determine how fast the driver is going. They use radar guns, lidar guns and they also use pacing in order to track motorists’ speed. As long as they can demonstrate in court that the equipment is functioning properly and the use of correct protocol then they’ll be able to tell if you’re speeding and prove it.

Weight of Radar Readings in Court

Radar readings are generally accepted in court as reliable evidence as long as the calibration certificate is also presented by the officer and backs it up. For this to happen, the correct protocol needs to be followed by the police officer and the valid calibration certificate is going to be evidence to support at the protocol and procedure was followed. This is why it’s really crucial to have a Virginia Beach reckless driving lawyer who knows what to look for in the calibration certificate and can help you determine if the evidence is actually enough to support the officer’s radar reading.

Defenses Against Radar Readings

If you weren’t going as fast as what the officer is claiming that you were going then in order for this to stand in court you’re going to have to provide some kind of proof. Because the officer is not just using his word to back up that he believes you’re speeding; the officer is actually presenting evidence to support his word in the form of the calibration certificate. It is very specific and there is very specific protocol that needs to be followed in order for it to be accepted. If you meet these requirements then the proof is persuasive enough for a conviction be granted by the judge. in order to fight against the calibration certificate and the officer’s evidence you will need to present more than just your word.

The best and really the easiest defense to radar gun reading in court is related to the calibration certificate. If it’s incorrectly filled out, then usually this is enough to have the whole case dismissed because most of the time police officers don’t have any more evidence except for the speed that they’re alleging that the driver was going. Likewise if the certificate happens to show that the radar gun used wasn’t maintained or calibrated in the required timeframe then again the case could be totally dismissed for that. Any kind of errors in certificate are cause for a dismissal which is a really easy way to get a whole case thrown out before any of the evidence presented by the defendant has to be admitted. These requirements are super strict and sometimes officers even forget to bring the calibration certificate altogether so that’s a really good day in court.

Accuracy of Virginia Beach Speeding Instruments

As long as they can show that the instruments have been maintained properly as they’re required to be doing, then the readings produced are extremely accurate. These results have a great amount of influence in Virginia Beach court.


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First Humans On Mars
(Artist Concept; 12 June 2019)
Rendition of person in a spacesuit on Mars
Artist's concept of a spacecraft transporting crew to Mars

A human mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, aerospace engineering, and scientific proposals since the 19th century. Plans include landing on Mars for exploration at a minimum, with the possibility of sending settlers and terraforming the planet and/or exploring its moons Phobos and Deimos also considered.[citation needed]

The exploration of Mars has been a goal of national space programs for decades. Conceptual for missions that would involve human explorers has been ongoing since the 1950s, with planned missions typically being stated as taking place 10 to 30 years in the future when they are drafted. The List of crewed Mars mission plans shows the various mission proposals that have been put forth by multiple organizations and space agencies in this field of space exploration. Plans have varied from scientific expeditions, in which a small (2 to 8) group visits Mars for a period of a few weeks or year, to the permanent colonization of Mars.[citation needed]

In the 2010s, numerous US, European, and Asian agencies were developing proposals for human missions to Mars.[citation needed] Mars in fiction is a frequent target of exploration and settlement in books, graphic novels, and films.

Travel to MarsEdit

Three views of planet Mars, the "red planet"

The energy needed for transfer between planetary orbits, or "Delta-v", is lowest at intervals fixed by the synodic period. For Earth / Mars trips, this is every 26 months (2 years and 2 months), so missions are typically planned to coincide with one of these launch windows. Due to the eccentricity of Mars' orbit, the energy needed in the low-energy windows varies on roughly a 15-year cycle[1] with the easiest windows needing only half the energy of the peaks.[2] In the 20th century, there was a minimum in the 1969 and 1971 launch windows and another low in 1986 and 1988, then the cycle repeated.[1] The next low-energy launch window occurs in 2033.[3]

Several types of mission plans have been proposed, including opposition class and conjunction class[2] or the Crocco flyby.[4] The lowest energy transfer to Mars is a Hohmann transfer orbit, which would involve an approximately 9 month travel time from Earth to Mars, about five hundred days at Mars to wait for the transfer window to Earth, and a travel time of about 9 months to return to Earth.[5][6]

Shorter Mars mission plans have round-trip flight times of 400 to 450 days,[7] but would require significantly higher energy. A fast Mars mission of 245 days round trip could be possible with on-orbit staging.[8] In 2014 ballistic capture was proposed, which may reduce fuel cost and provide more flexible launch windows compared to the Hohmann.[9]

In the Crocco grand tour, a crewed spacecraft would get a flyby of Mars and Venus in under a year in space.[10] Some flyby mission architectures can also be extended to include a style of Mars landing with a flyby excursion lander spacecraft.[11] Proposed by R. Titus in 1966, it involved a short stay lander-ascent vehicle that would separate from a "parent" Earth-Mars transfer craft prior to its flyby of Mars. The Ascent-Descent lander would arrive sooner and either go into orbit around Mars or land, and depending on the design offer perhaps 10–30 days before it needed to launch itself back to the main transfer vehicle.[11] (see also Mars flyby).

Aerobraking at Mars was estimated in the 1980s to cut the mass of a Mars mission lifting off from Earth by half.[12] As a result, Mars missions have designed interplanetary spacecraft and landers capable of aero-braking.[12]

Landing on MarsEdit

Insets depict observation and analysis to find a safe landing site

Landed spacecraft on the surface of Mars:

Orbital captureEdit

When an expedition reaches the orbit of Mars, braking is required to enter Mars orbit proper. Two options are available: rockets or aerocapture. Aerocapture at Mars for human missions was studied in the 20th century.[13] In a review of 93 Mars studies, 24 used aerocapture for Mars or Earth return.[13] One of the considerations for using aerocapture on crewed missions is a limit on the maximum force experienced by the astronauts. The current scientific consensus is that 5g, or 5 times Earth gravity, is the maximum allowable acceleration.[13]

Survey workEdit

The largest limiting factor for sending humans to Mars is funding. The estimated cost is roughly 500 billion U.S. dollars, though the actual costs are likely to be more.[14] Starting in the late 1950s, the early phase of space exploration was conducted as much to make a political statement as to make observations of the solar system. However, this proved to be both wasteful and unsustainable, and the current climate is one of international cooperation, with large projects such as the International Space Station and the planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway being built and launched by multiple countries.[citation needed]

There are several key physical challenges for human missions to Mars:[18]

  • Adverse health effects of prolonged weightlessness, including eyesight impairment.[24][25][26] (Depends on mission and spacecraft design.)
  • Psychological effects of isolation from Earth and, by extension, the lack of community[clarification needed] due to lack of a real-time connection with Earth. (Compare Hermit.)
  • Social effects of several humans living under cramped conditions for more than one Earth year, possibly two or three years. (Depends on spacecraft and mission design).
  • Lack of medical facilities.
  • Potential failure of propulsion or life-support equipment.

Some of these issues were estimated statistically in the HUMEX study.[27] Ehlmann and others have reviewed political and economic concerns, as well as technological and biological feasibility aspects.[28] While fuel for roundtrip travel could be a challenge, methane and oxygen can be produced using Martian H2O (preferably as water ice instead of liquid water) and atmospheric CO2 with mature technology.[29]

Planetary protectionEdit

Robotic spacecraft to Mars are currently required to be sterilized. The allowable limit is 300,000 spores on the exterior of general craft, with stricter requirements for spacecraft bound to "special regions" containing water.[30][31] Otherwise there is a risk of contaminating not only the life-detection experiments but possibly the planet itself.[32]

It is impossible to sterilize human missions to this level, as humans are host to typically a hundred trillion (1014) microorganisms of thousands of species of the human microbiota, and these cannot be removed. Containment seems the only option, but it is a major challenge in the event of a hard landing (i.e. crash).[33] There have been several planetary workshops on this issue, but with no final guidelines for a way forward yet.[34] Human explorers would also be vulnerable to back contamination to Earth if they become carriers of microorganisms.[35]

Mission proposalsEdit

20th centuryEdit

Fuel is mined from Phobos with the help of a nuclear reactor.[36] Note that in reality, the crew would receive a lethal dose of radiation almost immediately.

Wernher von Braun proposal (1947 through 1950s)Edit

Wernher von Braun was the first person to make a detailed technical study of a Mars mission.[1][37] Details were published in his book Das Marsprojekt (1952, published in English as The Mars Project in 1962[38]) and several subsequent works.[39] Willy Ley popularized a similar mission in English in the book The Conquest of Space (1949), featuring illustrations by Chesley Bonestell. Von Braun's Mars project envisioned nearly a thousand three-stage vehicles launching from Earth to ferry parts for the Mars mission to be constructed at a space station in Earth orbit.[37][40] The mission itself featured a fleet of ten spacecraft with a combined crew of 70 heading to Mars, bringing three winged surface excursion ships that would land horizontally on the surface of Mars. (Winged landing was considered possible because at the time of his proposal, the Martian atmosphere was believed to be much denser than was later found to be the case.)

In the 1956 revised vision of the Mars Project plan, published in the book The Exploration of Mars by Wernher Von Braun and Willy Ley, the size of the mission was trimmed, requiring only 400 launches to put together two ships, still carrying a winged landing vehicle.[41] Later versions of the mission proposal, featured in the Disney "Man In Space" film series,[42] showed nuclear-powered ion-propulsion vehicles for the interplanetary cruise.

U.S. proposals (1950s to 1970s)Edit

Following the success of the Apollo Program, von Braun advocated a crewed mission to Mars as a focus for NASA's crewed space program.[45] Von Braun's proposal used Saturn V boosters to launch NERVA-powered upper stages that would propel two six-crew spacecraft on a dual mission in the early 1980s. The proposal was considered by President Richard Nixon but passed over in favor of the Space Shuttle.

In 1975, von Braun discussed the mission architecture that emerged from these Apollo-era studies in a recorded lecture and while doing so suggested that multiple Shuttle launches could instead be configured to lift the two Nuclear Thermal Rocket engine equipped spacecraft in smaller parts, for assembly in-orbit.[46]

Soviet mission proposals (1956 through 1969)Edit

The Martian Piloted Complex or "'MPK'" was a proposal by Mikhail Tikhonravov of the Soviet Union for a crewed Mars expedition, using the (then proposed) N1 rocket, in studies from 1956 to 1962. The Soviets sent many probes to Mars with some noted success stories including Mars atmospheric entry, but the overall rate of success was low.[citation needed] (see Mars 3)

Case for Mars (1981–1996)Edit

NASA Space Exploration Initiative (1989)Edit

Artist's conception of a human mission on the surface of Mars
1989 painting by Les Bossinas of Lewis Research Center for NASA

Mars Direct (early 1990s)Edit

International Space University (1991)Edit

In 1991 in Toulouse, France, the International Space University studied an international human Mars mission.[54] They proposed a crew of 8 traveling to Mars in a nuclear-powered vessel with artificial gravity provided by rotation.[54] On the surface, 40 tonne habitats pressurized to 10 psi (69 kPa) were powered by a 40 kW photovoltaic array.[54]

NASA Design reference missions (1990s)Edit

Selected other US/NASA studies (1988–2009):[55]

  1. 1988 "Mars Expedition"
  2. 1989 "Mars Evolution"
  3. 1990 "90-Day Study"
  4. 1991 "Synthesis Group"
  5. 1995 "DRM 1"
  6. 1997 "DRM 3"[56]
  7. 1998 "DRM 4"
  8. 1999 "Dual Landers"

21st centuryEdit

NASA Design reference missions (2000+)Edit

The NASA Mars Design Reference Missions consisted of a series of conceptual design studies for human Mars missions, continued in the 21st century Selected other US/NASA plans (1988–2009):[55]

  1. 2000 SERT (SSP)
  2. 2001 DPT/NEXT
  3. 2002 NEP Art. Gravity
  4. 2009 DRA 5[57]

MARPOST (2000–2005)Edit

The Mars Piloted Orbital Station (or MARPOST) is a Russian proposed crewed orbital mission to Mars, using a nuclear reactor to run an electric rocket engine. Proposed in October 2000 as the next step for Russia in space along with participation in the International Space Station, a 30-volume draft project for MARPOST was confirmed as of 2005.[58] Design for the ship was proposed to be ready in 2012, and the ship itself in 2021.[59]

ESA Aurora programme (2001+)Edit

Artwork featuring astronauts enduring a Mars dust storm near a rover

In 2001, the European Space Agency laid out a long-term vision of sending a human mission to Mars in 2033.[60] The project's proposed timeline would begin with robotic exploration, a proof of concept simulation of sustaining humans on Mars, and eventually a crewed mission. Objections from the participating nations of ESA and other delays have put the timeline into question, and currently ExoMars, delivered an orbiter to Mars in 2016, have come to fruition.

ESA/Russia plan (2002)Edit

USA Vision for Space Exploration (2004)Edit

On 14 January 2004, George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, an initiative of crewed space exploration. It included developing preliminary plans for a lunar outpost by 2012[62] and establishing an outpost by 2020. By 2005, precursor missions that would help develop the needed technology during the 2010s were tentatively outlined.[63] On 24 September 2007, Michael Griffin, then NASA Administrator, hinted that NASA would be able to launch a human mission to Mars by 2037.[64] The needed funds were to be generated by diverting $11 billion[65] from space science missions to the vision for human exploration.

NASA has also discussed plans to launch Mars missions from the Moon to reduce traveling costs.[66]

Mars Society Germany – European Mars Mission (EMM) (2005)Edit

The Mars Society Germany proposed a crewed Mars mission using several launches of an improved heavy-lift version of the Ariane 5. Roughly 5 launches would be required to send a crew of 5 on a 1200 days mission, with a payload of 120,000 kg (260,000 lb). Total project was estimated to cost 10 to 15 billion Euros.[67]

China National Space Administration (CNSA) (2006)Edit

Sun Laiyan, administrator of the China National Space Administration, said on July 20, 2006 that China would start deep space exploration focusing on Mars over the next five years, during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006–2010) Program period.[68] The first uncrewed Mars exploration program could take place between 2014–2033, followed by a crewed phase in 2040–2060 in which crew members would land on Mars and return home.[69] The Mars 500 study of 2011 prepared for this crewed mission.

Mars to Stay (2006)Edit

The idea of a one-way trip to Mars has been proposed several times. In 1988, space activist Bruce Mackenzie proposed a one-way trip to Mars in a presentation at the International Space Development Conference,[70] arguing that the mission could be done with less difficulty and expense without a return to Earth. In 2006, former NASA engineer James C. McLane III proposed a scheme to initially colonize Mars via a one-way trip by only one human. Papers discussing this concept appeared in The Space Review,[71] Harper's Magazine,[72] SEARCH Magazine[73] and The New York Times.[74]

NASA Design Reference Mission 5.0 (2007)Edit

Martian Frontier (2007–2011)Edit

Mars 500, the longest high fidelity spaceflight simulation, ran from 2007 to 2011 in Russia and was an experiment to assess the feasibility of crewed missions to Mars.[75]

NASA Design Reference Mission Architecture 5.0 (2009)Edit

Concept for NASA's Design Reference Mission Architecture 5.0 (2009)

NASA Austere Human Missions to Mars (2009)Edit

Mars orbit by the mid-2030s (2010)Edit

Russian mission proposals (2011)Edit

In late 2011, Russian and European space agencies successfully completed the ground-based MARS-500.[78] The biomedical experiment simulating crewed flight to Mars was completed in Russia in July 2000.[79]

2-4-2 concept (2011–2012)Edit

In 2012, Jean-Marc Salotti published a new proposal for a crewed Mars mission. The '2-4-2' concept is based on a reduction of the crew size to 2 astronauts and the duplication of the entire mission. There are 2 astronauts in each space vehicle, there are 4 on the surface of Mars and there are 2 once again in each return vehicle. If one set of hardware runs into trouble, there are 2 astronauts ready to help the 2 others (2 for 2). This architecture simplifies the entry, descent and landing procedures by reducing the size of the landing vehicles. It also avoids the assembly of huge vehicles in LEO. The author claims that his proposal is much cheaper than the NASA reference mission without compromising the risks and can be undertaken before 2030.[80][81]

Boeing Conceptual Space Vehicle Architecture (2012)Edit

Mars One (2012-2019)Edit

In 2012, a Dutch entrepreneur group began raising funds for a human Mars base to be established in 2023.[83] The mission was intended to be primarily a one-way trip to Mars. Astronaut applications were invited from the public all over the world, for a fee.

The initial concept included an orbiter and small robotic lander in 2018, followed by a rover in 2020, and the base components in 2024.[83] The first crew of four astronauts were to land on Mars in 2025. Then, every two years, a new crew of four would arrive. Financing was intended to come from selling the broadcasting rights of the entire training and of the flight as a reality television show, and that money would be used to contract for all hardware and launch services. In April 2015, Mars One's CEO Bas Lansdorp admitted that their 12-year plan for landing humans on Mars by 2027 is mostly fiction.[84] The company went bankrupt in January 2019.[85]

Inspiration Mars Foundation (2013)Edit

In 2013, the Inspiration Mars Foundation founded by Dennis Tito revealed plans of a crewed mission to fly by Mars in 2018 with support from NASA.[86][87] NASA refused to fund the mission.

Boeing Affordable Mission (2014)Edit

On December 2, 2014, NASA's Advanced Human Exploration Systems and Operations Mission Director Jason Crusan and Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs James Reuthner announced tentative support for the Boeing "Affordable Mars Mission Design"[clarification needed] including radiation shielding, centrifugal artificial gravity, in-transit consumable resupply, and a lander which can return.[88][89] Reuthner suggested that if adequate funding was forthcoming, the proposed mission would be expected in the early 2030s.[90]

NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration (2015-)Edit

Artist's rendering of a Block 1 SLS

On October 8, 2015, NASA published its strategy for human exploration and colonization of Mars. The concept operates through three distinct phases leading up to fully sustained colonization.[91]

The first stage, already underway, is the "Earth Reliant" phase. This phase continues using the International Space Station until 2024; validating deep space technologies and studying the effects of long duration space missions on the human body.

The second stage, "Proving Ground," moves away from Earth reliance and ventures into cislunar space for most of its tasks. The proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway would test deep space habitation facilities, and validate capabilities required for human exploration of Mars.

Finally, phase three is the transition to independence from Earth resources. The "Earth Independent" phase includes long term missions on the lunar surface with surface habitats that only require routine maintenance, and the harvesting of Martian resources for fuel, water, and building materials. NASA is still aiming for human missions to Mars in the 2030s, though Earth independence could take decades longer.[92]

In November 2015, Administrator Bolden of NASA reaffirmed the goal of sending humans to Mars.[93] He laid out 2030 as the date of a crewed surface landing, and noted that planned 2020 Mars rover would support the human mission.[93]

In March 2019, Vice President Mike Pence declared "American Astronauts will walk on the Moon again before the end of 2024, "by any means necessary"."[94] This reportedly prompted NASA to accelerate their plans to return to the Moon's surface by 2024. NASA says it will use the Artemis lunar program in combination with the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway as stepping stones to make great scientific strides "to take the next giant leap - sending astronauts to Mars" - NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.[95]

SpaceX Mars transportation infrastructure (2016-)Edit

Since 2016, SpaceX publicly announced a comprehensive vision to begin the colonization of Mars, by proposing to develop a high-capacity transportation infrastructure.

The ITS launch vehicle design was a large reusable booster topped by a spaceship or a tanker for in-orbit refueling.[96] The aspirational objective is to advance the technology and infrastructure such that the first humans to Mars could potentially depart as early as 2024.[97]

On 29 September 2017, Elon Musk announced an updated vehicle design for the Mars mission at the International Astronautical Congress. The replacement vehicle for this mission is called BFR (Big Falcon Rocket). BFR will provide the capability for on-orbit activity like satellite delivery, servicing the International Space Station, Moon missions, as well as Mars missions. There are two phases for the first human mission to Mars via BFR:

  • In 2022, at least 2 BFR cargo vehicles will land on Mars.
    • They will confirm water resources and identify hazards.
    • They will place power, mining and life support infrastructure for future missions.
  • In 2024, 2 BFR crew vehicles will take the first people to Mars.
    • 2 BFR cargo vehicles will bring more equipment and supplies.
    • They will place a propellant production plant.
    • They will build up a base to prepare for expansion.

The BFR is currently under construction, with sub-orbital flight testing expected in 2019.[98]

Mars Base Camp (2016)Edit

Mars Base Camp (MBC) is a US spacecraft concept that proposes to send astronauts to Mars orbit as early as 2028. The vehicle concept, developed by Lockheed Martin,[99] would utilize both future and heritage technology as well as the Orion MPCV built by NASA.

Deep Space Transport (2017)Edit

Deep Space Transport

The Deep Space Transport (DST) is a spacecraft meant to be launched on top of NASA's SLS launch vehicle in 2027. It was announced by NASA in March 2017.[100] It is to dock with the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) station, which would be in cis-lunar space after its construction, in 2027. Current plans show it to be sent with a crew of 4 to Mars in 2033. It would not, however, land, but merely remain in Martian orbit until there is a launch window for a return. The mission is expected to take about 2 years if all missions in the DSG and DST from 2021–2030 are successful. This mission would use the SLS rocket for launches, and the Orion MPCV to transport the crew to and from the Earth and the DSG and DST.[101][102]

Current intentions by nations and space agenciesEdit

  • The United States has several robotic missions currently exploring Mars, with a sample-return planned for the future. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is intended to serve as the launch/splashdown crew delivery vehicle, with a Deep Space Habitat module providing additional living-space for the 16-month-long journey. The first crewed Mars Mission, which will include sending astronauts to Mars, orbiting Mars, and a return to Earth, is scheduled for the 2030s.[103][104][105] Technology development for US government missions to Mars is underway, but there is no well-funded approach to bring the conceptual project to completion with human landings on Mars by the mid-2030s, the stated objective.[106] NASA is under presidential orders to land humans on Mars by 2033, and NASA-funded engineers are studying a way to build potential human habitats there by producing bricks from pressurized Martian soil.[107]
  • The European Space Agency has a long-term goal to send humans but has not yet built a crewed spacecraft. It has sent robotic probes like ExoMars in 2016 and plans to send the next probe in 2020.
  • India successfully placed an uncrewed Mars Orbiter Mission (also called Mangalyaan) satellite in Mars orbit in 2014.[108] ISRO plans a larger follow-up mission called Mangalyaan 2 between 2018 and 2020.[109][110] This mission will likely consist of a lander and a Mars rover.[111][112] No plans for an Indian human mission to Mars have been made public.
  • Japan has sent one robotic mission to Mars in 1998, the Nozomi, but it failed to achieve Mars orbit. JAXA has proposed a rover mission called MELOS for an engineering demonstration of precision landing, and to look for possible biosignatures on Mars in 2020 or 2022. No plans for a Japanese human mission to Mars have been made public.
  • China's first attempted mission to Mars, the Yinghuo-1 space probe, was lost with Russia's sample return mission to Phobos, Fobos-Grunt in 2011–2012. China plans to develop and launch an orbiter, lander and rover to Mars in July or August 2020[113][114] with a Long March 5 heavy lift rocket.[115][116][117] A crewed phase is planned for the 2040–2060 timeframe.[118]
  • Russia plans to send humans in the 2040–2045 timeframe.[119]

Technological innovations and hurdlesEdit

Depiction of plants growing in a Mars base. NASA plans to grow plants for space food.[120]
NASA has stated that robots will prepare an underground base for a human surface mission.[93]

Entry into the thin and shallow Martian atmosphere will pose significant difficulties with re-entry and for a spacecraft of the weight needed to carry humans, along with life support, supplies and other equipment. Should a heat shield be used, it would need to be very large. Retro rockets could be used, but would add significant further weight.[citation needed]

A return mission to Mars will need to land a rocket to carry crew off the surface. Launch requirements mean that this rocket would be significantly smaller than an Earth-to-orbit rocket. Mars-to-orbit launch can also be achieved in single stage. Despite this, landing an ascent rocket on Mars will be difficult. Reentry for a large rocket will be difficult.[citation needed]

In 2014 NASA proposed the Mars Ecopoiesis Test Bed.[121]

Intravenous fluid

One of the medical supplies that might be needed is a considerable mass of intravenous fluid, which is mainly water but contains other substances so it can be added directly to the human blood stream. If it could be created on the spot from existing water, this would reduce mass requirements. A prototype for this capability was tested on the International Space Station in 2010. [122]

Breathing gases

While it is possible for humans to breathe pure oxygen, usually additional gases like nitrogen are included in the breathing mix. One possibility is to take in-situ nitrogen and argon from the atmosphere of Mars; however, they are hard to separate from each other.[123] As a result, a Mars habitat may use 40% argon, 40% nitrogen, and 20% oxygen.[123]

An idea for keeping carbon dioxide out of the breathing air is to use re-usable amine bead carbon dioxide scrubbers.[124] While one carbon dioxide scrubber filters the astronaut's air, the other is vented to the Mars atmosphere.[124]

Precursor missionsEdit

Some missions may be considered a "Mission to Mars" in their own right, or they may only be one step in a more in-depth program. An example of this is missions to Mars' moons, or flyby missions.

Missions to Deimos or PhobosEdit

Many Mars mission concepts propose precursor missions to the moons of Mars, for example a sample return mission to the Mars moon Phobos[125] – not quite Mars, but perhaps a convenient stepping stone to an eventual Martian surface mission. Lockheed Martin, as part of their "Stepping stones to Mars" project, called the "Red Rocks Project", proposed to explore Mars robotically from Deimos.[49][126][127]

Mars sample return missionsEdit

Artist concept of SCIM gathering a sample of the Martian atmosphere.
Sample return mission concept

An uncrewed Mars sample return mission (MSR) has sometimes been considered as a precursor to crewed missions to Mars' surface.[128] In 2008, the ESA called a sample return "essential" and said it could bridge the gap between robotic and human missions to Mars.[128] An example of a Mars sample return mission is Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars (SCIM).[129] Mars sample return was the highest priority Flagship Mission proposed for NASA by the Planetary Decadal Survey 2013–2022: The Future of Planetary Science.[130] However, such missions have been hampered by complexity and expense, with one ESA proposal involving no less than five different uncrewed spacecraft.[131]

Sample return plans raise the concern, however remote, that an infectious agent could be brought to Earth.[131] Regardless, a basic set of guidelines for extraterrestrial sample return have been laid out depending on the source of sample (e.g. asteroid, Moon, Mars surface, etc.)[132]

At the dawn of the 21st century, NASA crafted four potential pathways to Mars human missions.[133] Of those four, three included a Mars sample return as a prerequisite to human landing; however one did not.[133]

Crewed orbital missionsEdit

Starting in 2004, NASA scientists have proposed to explore Mars via telepresence from human astronauts in orbit.[134][135]

A similar idea was the proposed "Human Exploration using Real-time Robotic Operations" (HERRO) mission.[136][137]

See alsoEdit

  3. ^ Paul D. Wooster; et al. "Mission design options for human Mars missions". CiteSeerX
  5. ^ "Hohmann transfer orbit diagram". Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  6. ^ "Homann Transfers". Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  10. ^ "Crocco".
  12. ^ a b "Photo-s88_35629".
  13. ^ a b c Diane Vaughan; Bonnie F. James; Michelle M. Murk. "A Comparative Study of Aerocapture Missions with a Mars Destination" (PDF). Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  19. ^ "Model calculations of the particle spectrum of the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environment : Assessment with ACE/CRIS and MARIE measurements". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  27. ^ Horneck and Comet (2006), doi:10.1016/j.asr.2005.06.077
  29. ^ Rapp et al. (2005) doi:10.1109/AERO.2005.1559325
  32. ^ "An Astrobiology Strategy for the Exploration of Mars". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  36. ^ "Photo-s86_25375". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  42. ^ "Article on Von Braun and Walt Disney". Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  55. ^ a b NASA Austere Human Missions to Mars (2009)
  61. ^ "Russia proposes manned Mars mission by 2015" – 8 July 2002 – New Scientist
  62. ^ "NASA – ESMD". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  64. ^ AFP: NASA aims to put man on Mars by 2037 Archived 2007-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
  66. ^ The Space Age at 50. National Geographic Magazine, October 2007 issue
  67. ^ European Mars Mission Encyclopedia Astronautica
  75. ^ Glenday, Craig (2013). Guinness world records. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-908843-15-9.
  79. ^ "Russia's plans for manned Mars missions".
  80. ^ Jean-Marc Salotti, Acta Astronautica, Volume 69, Issues 5–6, September–October 2011, Pages 266–279.
  81. ^ Jean-Marc Salotti, Acta Astronautica, Volume 81, Issue 1, December 2012.
  98. ^ "Musk reiterates plans for testing BFR". 12 March 2018.
  99. ^ "Mars Base Camp".
  100. ^ Hambleton, Kathryn (28 March 2017). "Deep Space Gateway to Open Opportunities for Distant Destinations".
  101. ^ [1][permanent dead link]
  102. ^ Berger, Eric (29 March 2017). "Finally, some details about how NASA actually plans to get to Mars". Ars Technica.
  103. ^ "Nasa's Orion spacecraft prepares for launch in first step towards manned Mars mission". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
  107. ^ Johnston, Ian. "'Incredibly brave’ Mars colonists could live in red-brick houses, say engineers", The Independent (April 27, 2017).
  108. ^ "India celebrates Mars mission 'cheaper than a movie'". Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  109. ^ "Second mission to Mars may be by 2020: ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan". The Economic Times. Press Trust of India. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  110. ^ Dodhiya, K. A. (4 January 2015). "Chandrayaan-II in full progress: Isro ex-chief". The Asian Age. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015.
  111. ^ "India plans second Mars mission in 2018". CNN-IBN. Indo-Asian News Service. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  112. ^ "ISRO's Mangalyaan-2 Mission to launch in 2018". NIT Sparrows. 2014. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  113. ^ "China shows first images of Mars rover, aims for 2020 mission". Reuters. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  114. ^ "Interview with Zhang Rongqiao, the man behind China's mission to Mars". Youtube. Retrieved 24 August 2016. China Central Television
  115. ^ Jones, Andrew (22 February 2016). "China is racing to make the 2020 launch window to Mars". GBTimes. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  116. ^ Berger, Eric (22 February 2016). "China pressing ahead with orbiter and lander mission to Mars". ARS Technica. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  117. ^ Lu, Shen (4 November 2016). "China says it plans to land rover on Mars in 2020". CNN News. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  124. ^ a b "Suiting Up for the Red Planet".
  131. ^ a b "Mars Sample Return".
  133. ^ a b "Next On Mars".

Further readingEdit

External linksEdit


image: KKJ.CN

Samsung told Reuters, “shipments of the Galaxy Note 7 are being delayed due to additional tests being conducted for product quality.” We’ve reached out to Samsung for comment and for better clarity about what these delays mean.

Galaxy Note 7 devices were already shipping in some countries, including the U.S..

That’s all we know about the first incident too. The phone burned up while charging. The type of cable in that first incident is unknown (though some reports suggest it was a non-official cable connected to a micro-USB adaptor).

We’ve known for a while that cheap USB-C cables can mean death for your laptop or smartphone. In the past, we’ve seen reported incidents of iPhone users using faulty, non-official charging cables bursting as well.


Challenges On the Way of Foreign Language Learning

Learning a Foreign Language: The Most Common Problems

“As many languages you know as many times you are a human being”. Probably everyone has already heard these famous words. However, nowadays they are actual as never. The world needs educated and intelligent people, and knowing a foreign language or a couple of them becomes demanding and prestigious.

Certainly, no pain – no gain. It takes a lot of time, practice, devotion, and efforts to develop your knowledge of the foreign language. Different people have different abilities when it comes to foreign languages learning. However, there exist 5 common obstacles many people face when you do decide to take up a new language.

People are usually afraid what will happen if they aren’t able to understand this or that grammatical category of a foreign language and something like this. The fear of meeting somebody and not being able to talk using a foreign language you are learning – a great problem you need to avoid. Yes, phraseological and metaphorical world of any language is rich and difficult to perceive with understanding. Of course, it takes time to realize all the grammar structures of a foreign language. So, take your time, do it, try it harder. Forget about fear and enjoy each lesson. This is the only way to succeed.

Lack of opportunities

Not everyone can afford themselves having private lessons or attending some language school. However, it is not actually a great deal. Many people think that they have no opportunities to learn a foreign language and give up on it. Never do that! What about the Internet? There are many websites which are full of materials for learning any foreign language. You can read books online, watch videos, pass different tests. Visiting different forums where different people share useful materials is also a good idea. You will definitely find some friends there, who can practice with you on a daily basis. So, stop finding excuses. If you really want to learn a foreign language, you will never feel the lack of opportunities.

Refusal to accept things

Some foreign languages are written left to right…There exist many confusing endings…Mixed feminine and masculine endings… You are going to notice many interesting things while learning a new language. It is quite obvious. So, you just need to accept things. Of course, you need to understand why everything is like that. For once, take a look at the roots of a language and get to know. But remember that you need to deal and take everything any foreign language brings. Respect the differences and keep your mind open for getting new brand information.

The lack of time

Probably the majority of people find it difficult to have free hours for a foreign language learning and practice, let alone visiting the country to feel the language. The problem is that language learner put the wrong priority. If your dream is to become a confident language user, change your priorities, change your plans for a day. Try to make time for things you really need, and your life will become better. Only day-to-day learning can master your language skills, even if one day you are just watching educational videos on a target language.

The voice inside

The inner voice saying “you can`t do it” will spoil all your efforts and expectation about learning foreign languages. So, it is very important to deal with these negative thoughts. You should have only one idea in your mind – I can do it and I will surely do it. Postponing learning a dream language is for weak people. In order to succeed you need to remain consistent, hardworking, and extremely self-confident. Do not be afraid to learn something new and put it in your mind in a foreign language. Avoid self-ruining and negative thinking.

Learning foreign languages not only gives you the ability to communicate with overseas people. It broadens your outlook and makes you wide open for something new. Recognize your problems and solve them as soon as possible. Never stop feeding your brain. Being well-educated is brandy!


Are We Ready for Tailored Clinical Programs for Biosimilars?

During the second day of the Medicines for Europe 17th Biosimilar Medicines Conference, held March 28-29 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, a panel of experts discussed the current state of the regulatory landscape and considerations for tailoring clinical programs in the years ahead.
Kelly Davio
March 29, 2019
One of the hottest issues in biosimilar development is the potential to tailor clinical trials for biosimilars as a means to expedite approval and access while reducing the burden of cost and lengthy trials on biosimilar developers. However, stakeholders do not all necessarily agree on the feasibility of streamlining programs or waiving phase 3 clinical trials for biosimilars. During the second day of the Medicines for Europe 17th Biosimilar Medicines Conference, held March 28-29 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, a panel of experts discussed the current state of the regulatory landscape and considerations for tailoring clinical programs in the years ahead.

The panel’s moderator, Paul Chamberlain, member of the NDA advisory board (who noted that the panelists were expressing personal views), called the discussion a “challenge to the status quo,” and asked the panelists to grapple with the question of how developers can leverage knowledge gained over the past decade, clinical experience, and postauthorization data to provide a more efficient approach to determining the clinical weight of evidence.

First, René Anour, DrMedVet, senior medical assessor in the Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, opened the panel by describing a notable recent learning from the development process of Samsung Bioepis’ trastuzumab biosimilar, Ontruzant.

During development, “they were nicely similar on a quality level, preclinical level, and on a [pharmacokinetic, PK] level,” he said, “and then something happened that we had not anticipated at all.” In a phase 3 study, there was observed superiority of the biosimilar to the originator in terms of pathologic complete response. “This was a human breast cancer model, and the superiority was significantly shown,” he said. “That struck us in a way, because we thought that, if there was a difference, we would have seen it early on.”

The superiority of the biosimilar was eventually determined to be a result of product shift in the reference trastuzumab, Herceptin, that resulted in changes to its antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). At the time, ADCC was not understood to be key to the efficacy of trastuzumab, said Anour; “the learning we can derive from that is, probably, we do not always know what attributes are of interest for the clinical profile of the product. Not yet, at least.”

The case of the change to ADCC in reference trastuzumab, he added, has generated some uncertainty about how far comparability studies can be trusted to make phase 3 trials unnecessary.

Additionally, with pegfilgrastim, Anour said that the factors influencing PK were as not well understood as regulators thought when the first, early biosimilars were being developed. “We found out the PK, [pharmacodynamic, PD] correlation wasn’t very good,” and “we cannot always trust plasma levels of this molecule,” either. In some cases, he emphasized, there remains enough uncertainty that tailored approaches to approval are not warranted. “It might seem like we as the regulators are slowing the process down,” but decisions need to be based on the evidence, not the desire to speed up the process of approval.

Niklas Ekman, PhD, head of the biological section at the Finnish Medicines Agency and vice chair of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) biosimilar medicinal products working party, added that it is difficult to link quality attributes to clinical outcomes and challenging to understand at what level these differences in attributes need to be present in order to generate clinical differences.

In the trastuzumab case, said Ekman, part of the problem was related to assays for ADCC. Some assays are so insensitive that “you can’t see anything, no matter what is happening.” One key challenge is to select the right assay to determine what constitutes a relevant difference between products.

Another case in which some differences have been observed between biosimilars and reference products concerns etanercept; Samsung Bioepis’ biosimilar, Benepali, is associated with fewer injection-site reactions (ISRs) than reference etanercept, and that fact is related to lower levels of high–molecular weight aggregates in the biosimilar than in the reference, Enbrel.

“On the analytical side,” said Ekman, we try to understand as [well] as possible all the differences we see, but obviously, there are situations where we don’t understand the meaning of the difference,” although it is “very seldom” that specific differences in quality attributes can be linked with a clinical observation like reduced incidence of ISRs.

Alex Kudrin, MD, MBA, PhD, an independent biopharmaceutical consultant, added that, for some classes, there exists sufficient experience to potentially waive some data. With products as well understood as growth hormones, for example, it is even questionable whether PK data are necessary. Anour added that insulin could be a good candidate for a tailored approach; if good comparability has been demonstrated, a developer would not necessarily need more data than those derived from a PK/PD study.

However, Kudrin pointed out, some products, like rituximab, are surrounded by more questions. For example, said Kudrin, the FDA has signaled that it is not yet clear what the mechanism of action is for rituximab in the indication of vasculitis. “There are uncertainties around this molecule,” he said, and it is not a product that is suited for testing in healthy subjects.

Additionally, from a clinical perspective, the next wave of biosimilars will be difficult to assess; anti–programmed death-ligand 1 agents will be a particular challenge, because overall survival—the most reliable measure of their efficacy—will not be practical as an end point for phase 3 clinical studies.

Chamberlain raised the question of drugs to treat orphan indications and whether it will be feasible to tailor approaches for clinical development. Anour indicated that tailoring would be necessary for these rare disease drugs, and currently, programs for these products are being addressed on a case-by-case basis as regulators try to find a suitable way forward. Anour encouraged developers to seek early scientific advice about their programs from the EMA.

Finally, Uwe Gudat, MD, head of clinical safety and pharmacovigilance, Fresenius Kabi, called into question whether phase 3 clinical trials are the most fit for understanding differences between biosimilars and their references. “Are the difference we see substantial? Are they robust and reproducible, or is it more or less a chance effect?” he asked. For clinical trials in samples sizes usually used for biosimilars, “it ends up with a maybe.” While these studies are well suited to detect large, dramatic differences, it is unlikely that these would slip through during the preclinical process, and studies can raise as many questions as they answer, he argued.

The human body can be a clinical tool, Gudat said, used alongside the other tools at the developer’s disposal. But “If I have a high degree of confidence, and I have a PK/PD study that adds to that confidence, how much more confidence do I need?”

In response, Anour said, “It has come up a couple of times that clinical trials end up with more questions than we have before. That’s true in some examples, but the answer cannot be ‘let’s not ask any more.’ We need to ask better.”

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Accounting Amortization Assignment Help

Q) 1. What is Amortization for Business?

Amortization is the procedure in which any organization or company takes the decision to lessen the prices/ value of the assets considered over their anticipated lifetime. This act can be considered as diminishing or promoting that part of the asset’s pricing which has become outdated and out-fashioned while in the course of earning profits and generating income for the company or the firm. Amortization is only concerned with the concrete and physical assets which can be termed as tangible assets, but also takes into consideration intangible assets which have indescribable value such as patents, trademarks and trade names etc.

There are numerous benefits for the organization, which can be stated to be used in the documentation and generation of more concrete and substantial statements expenses and gains. The payment of taxes can be stated as another significant benefit of amortization as amortization is considered as expense incurred by the business and hence it is tax deductible.

Q) 2. What is Amortization for Loans?

Amortization refers to the disbursement or payment of loans by doling out the total payable sum in equal amounts which are generally referred to as installments. These equal amounts or installments due to be payable at regular intervals of time generally payable along with an interest. The rate of interest usually pre-fixed at the time of taking the loans by the banks. While the total sum is being repaid back to the bank, first of all the interests is paid to the banks and then the principal amount in form of timely equal installments. The banks also determine a fixed time period in course of which the total amount has to be repaid to the bank. The amounts of the installments if fixed in such a manner which ensures that the sum total of principal and interest levied on the principal is paid well in the due course of time of repayment of installments if no defaults are made.

Q) 3. Working of Amortization?

There are 2 key points that should be kept in mind while working out amortization. They include:

Interest is usually paid on that amount of loan which has not been paid, i.e. the leftover amount of loan which has to be repaid back at any given time of the amortization period.

With the increase in the time taken to repay back the loan, the amount of interest which needs to be paid as interest also increases.

Q) 4. Formula for Amortization Periodic Amount

M= stands for the amount of installments

P= stands for the principal loan amount

R= stands for the rate of interest

N= stands for the number of years/months. (loan period)

Q) 5. Example of Amortization of Loans

Let’s us take an instance where a loan of $12000 is borrowed at an interest rate of 5% for a period of 12 months. Let’s calculate the monthly payment and interest using the formula.

By substituting the respective values in this formula, M =

By calculating the above values, we get the monthly payment amount as $1027.29, wherein the fixed principle amount was $977.29 and interest as $50. Now the next interest which has to be repaid back will be calculated on the amount which is still to be repaid, which is also the leftover or remaining amount of the loan i.e. $11,022.71.

This formula can be used to calculate all the amounts due as installments well in advance basis the fact that the interest rate is generally fixed and does not change over the period of time. However, when we tend to work out all the leftover installments which are due to be paid for remaining amount of loan period, we will find that the amount of principal goes on an increasing trend and the interest rate goes the other way round, i.e. the interest rate decreases. However, this can be observed that the amount to be repaid as the installments remains the same and does not change over the period of time.

The total amount that has to be paid as interest can be calculated by subtracting the total principal amount payable from the total amount paid as mortgage loan repayment.

Q) 6. Amortization Schedule Calculator

The amortization schedule calendar aids one to divide the monthly amounts to be done as the principal amount and the interest amount. This will help in making the advance statement of the amount, principal and the interest that is required to be paid for the repayment of loan over a period of time.

Q) 7. Loan Repayment Strategies

Additional Payments: Taking an instance where one takes a loan for a period of 10 years. One can decide to pay some extra or additional amount as the principal amount. In this way, one can be sure that the period of loan repayment is shortened and some interest which had to be otherwise paid is also saved.

Payment Acceleration: In this case, one can consider to pay the installments more frequently, i.e. instead of paying the installments monthly or annually, one may decide to make the payments bi-monthly or bi-annually. This method will proffer the same benefits as offered by the additional payment strategy.

Q) 8. Amortization of Intangible Assets

Amortization of intangibles refers to the decrease or diminution in the value of intangible assets. This is typically written-off the value of the intangible asset which is expected over the estimated life of the asset.

Intangible assets essentially comprise of:

● Patents

● Copyrights

● Trademarks

● Customer lists

● Government licenses

Taking an instance of the same, consider a company is acquired by Marvels Ltd, which also has patents of the value of $10,000. In this scenario, Marvels Ltd, decides to amortize this asset for the next 5 years at a rate of $2000 annually. So considering the amortization of intangible assets, the value of patent will become $8000 and will not exist after a period of 5 years if the same terms of amortization are applied.

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Organic Gardeners Composting

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Building a compost pile

This simple recipe for making a compost pile should produce ready-to-use compost in a few months. 4. Inoculate a new pile, if desired, by sprinkling a small amount of topsoil or compost between layers. Some composters believe this speeds the process by seeding the new pile with decomposing organisms. 5. Monitor moisture content test by feeling a handful of compost and squeezing it as you would a sponge. It should feel moist without yielding more than a few drops of liquid. If the pile is too wet, turn it to allow air in and improve drainage. If the pile is too dry, water it and turn it. 6. Periodically check the temperature in the pile's interior. A compost thermometer is helpful, but you can estimate the temperature by touch. It should peak between 120 and 160 F (hot to the touch). When the temperature begins to drop, turn the pile and rotate materials from the outer and top parts of the pile toward the base and middle move the more composted middle part to the outer part of the...

Choose a composting method

Set-ups for a compost pile range from simple to elaborate. Basic compost heap Simply pile and mix the compost materials on the ground. Cover the pile when it rains to prevent it from getting too wet or losing nutrients to leaching. Turn the heap regularly (every week or two). Building the pile over a layer of scrap plastic pipes drilled with holes allows for air penetration from below and reduces the need for turning. Compost pit Pits are ideal for composting materials consisting mostly of food scraps. Dig a hole in the ground, add the materials, mix with soil in the hole, and refill the hole with at least 8 inches of soil. Fallow areas of your garden are good places for compost pits. Holding units Bins help to contain the compost heap, keep it out of sight, and can make it easier to turn. They can be made of concrete blocks, wire mesh, or wood (although wood may lead to termite problems). If the bin is a movable type, it can be lifted from the pile and placed next to it when it is...

Alternatives to composting

You can reuse organic materials in your yard in other ways. People practice passive composting when they pile up organic materials but don't turn the pile. Without turning, the pile will be cooler and much slower to decompose. The materials break down eventually, and compost can be removed from the bottom of the pile. This method may not kill weed seeds and plant pathogens, and the pile may attract insect and animal pests. Mulching is similar to composting but requires less effort. Chipped or shredded organic materials such as lawn clippings, leaves, pine needles, shrubs, and trees can be spread on the soil surface around your plants. Mulch controls weeds, keeps moisture in the soil, and reduces soil erosion.

How To Know When The Compost Is Ready

The composting process can take from 2 months to 2 years, depending on the material used and the effort involved. To speed up the process, the pile should be a balance between wet and dry material, it should also be turned frequently and the waste should be shredded or in small pieces. Compost is ready to be used when it is dark in color, crumbly and has an earthy smell. You can shift the compost to eliminate material which has not yet finished composting. Return this back into the pile to complete its transformation into humus. USES FOR COMPOSTED MATERIAL It can benefit soil and plants in many ways, * For more information contact The Composting Council of Canada at 16 Northumberland Street, Toronto,Ontario M6H 1P7, Website http

The Composting Council Of Canada

Composting is natures way of recycling. Composting decomposes and transforms organic material such as food scraps, leaves and yard trimmings, paper, wood, manures, and the remains of agriculture crops, into a soil-like product called humus. The composting process uses micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi to break down the organic materials. For the process to work best it is important for the micro-organisms to have a continuous supply of food, water and oxygen. Managing the temperature of the compost is also an important step. Composting is an easy way to recycle at home. It can reduce the amount of household garbage by about one third, and it produces a valuable soil amendment for use in gardening and landscaping.

What to compost

Efficient Compost Pile

Organisms that decompose organic materials to form compost depend on a diet of carbon and nitrogen. Fresh, green materials are rich in nitrogen, and so are animal manures. Just as plants need nitrogen to grow, decomposers need nitrogen to fuel the decomposition process. Grass clippings are rich in nitrogen, and wood chips are a carbon source. The key to making a compost

Undesireable materials

May contribute pests (weeds, plant diseases) when inadequately composted 7. Continue to monitor the temperature in the pile. It should heat up again. After the temperature peaks, turn the pile once more. You may note that white molds decrease over time, insect populations will change, and beneficial worms become abundant as the compost matures. 8. The process is completed when the pile does not generate any more heat. When the pile is cool and the compost has aged for another four weeks, it should be finished. The pile should be much smaller than its original size, and the original materials should no longer be recognizable. The compost should be dark, loose (crumbly), and without any strong or unpleasant odor. 9. Use the compost to mix into the soil or to make compost tea to use for watering crops, seedlings, and starts. Spread compost on your lawn and under shrubs, flowering plants, vegetables, and trees.

Getting started

Compost is easier to turn when piled on concrete or another hard surface, but worms and other beneficial organisms from the soil will have a harder time reaching the pile. Level ground is also a good surface. The appropriate location for a compost pile is a shady area protected from wind (to prevent it from drying out). Protect the pile from heavy rain by covering it with a Have a protected area to store finished compost if it isn't going to be used immediately. Avoid mixing undecomposed materials with finished compost.

Recycling Opportunities

Don't dump offal on land that is not part of an approved composting land fertilization program or at any location other than a Waste Disposal Site and then only with consent of the site owner operator. Do dispose as a compost, soil conditioner, or fertilizer making sure that it is covered to control flies and odors. Written approval is required for establishing commercial compost facilities and for commercial compost spreading programs. COMPOSTING And Cape Broyle Composting Inc.

Chemical and microbiological analysis of quality of different types of organic wastes

The results of the sampling of products for toxicological elements indicate in particular the benefits of sorting and composting this waste. Table 6 presents results for the contents in heavy metals. The samples which, in general, fell within the World Bank norms for compost were those from compost produced by CREPA and the women's associations to whom it has provided training (Wogodogo, Secteur 10, Secteur 19). Where even these limits are exceeded, they still fall within the French norm for compost in the case of lead (Pb). The Ouagadougou compost samples come from a relatively better process of sorting out detrimental material (e.g. batteries) than the process undertaken by the composter who was surveyed in Bamako. The results thus show the possible dangers of not sorting the waste sufficiently, the only manner in which heavy metals can be eliminated. Compost Secteur 101 Compost Secteur 191 Compost Wogodogo1 Compost CREPA Compost Compost TAL3 Norms Compost Compost Compost 1 Compost...

Rise of the Biopolymers Recycling versus Degradation

Cellulose Structure

The main advantages in using biopolymers in the environment is biodegradablity, although some of these materials are also compostable. To be compostable the biomaterial requires a controlled microbial environment such as an industrial compost facility before they will degrade. This is because there are requirements of heat, moisture and aeration to activate and sustain the degradation process. To be considered compostable, a material must be able be put into an industrial composting process and breakdown by 90 within six months. Under the European Standard EN 13432 2 they can be labelled or marked with a 'compostable' symbol. As an example a PLA film under 20 m thick is compostable and packaging made and marked with this symbol can be commercially composted. Thicker films above 20 m although still biodegradable do not qualify as compostable. A home composting logo has yet to be established. However, at some point in the future this will enable consumers to dispose of compostable...

Myth Our Garbage Will Poison Us

Fact Almost anything can pose a theoretical threat, but evidence of actual harm from landfills is almost non-existent, as the Environmental Protection Agency itself acknowledges. The EPA has concluded that landfills constructed according to agency regulations can be expected to cause a total of 5.7 cancer-related deaths over the next 300 years. It isn't household waste, but improperly or illegally dumped industrial wastes that can be harmful. Household recycling programs have no effect on those wastes, a fact ignored by messianic proponents of recycling.

Recovery Of Heavy Oil From Waste Plastic

Polyester Resin Reactor Drawings

The waste plastics generated from households are in the form of plastic mixtures among such mixtures, the amount of PET generated as a household waste has rapidly increased as the production of PET bottles has increased. PET is formed by the ester bonding of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. When PET is heated above 380 C, pyrolysis suddenly starts, yielding oxygen-containing hydrocarbons and a significant amount of carbonaceous residue 17-19 . Accordingly, in order to develop a recycling process for the conversion of waste plastics into useful liquid hydrocarbons, a method for the degradation of a mixture of waste plastics without the production of such a carbonaceous residue is required.

Other Methods of Recycling and Waste Disposal Options

Examples of highly mixed and technically challenging wastes can be found in domestic household waste, electrical and electronic waste and end-of-life vehicles when they have been shredded. If it is not practical to sort and mechanically recycle these wastes, what are the alternatives

Recycling Is Not Environmentally Friendly

In the following viewpoint author Daniel K. Benjamin argues that recycling does not help conserve natural resources or protect the environment. He believes that recycling programs are an overreaction to myths the public has been fed about a so-called garbage crisis. Benjamin contends that no such crisis exists In his opinion, there is enough space to hold all of America's garbage, landfills do not produce dangerous gases, and natural resources are not being depleted. Furthermore, he suggests that recycling may produce as much pollution as primary manufacturing and curbside recycling programs because more vehicles are required to transport the trash to and from recycling centers. He points out that landfills have more capacity for trash than ever before and that harmful gases emitted by landfills are not due to household waste but by illegally dumped industrial waste. Benjamin concludes there are enough resources to meet the world's demand for products and that recycling is an...

Pilot projects on waste transformation

The experiments of CREPA in Ouagadougou on tube aeration of compost heaps did not lead, unfortunately, to any improvements to be recommended to the women's associations or diffused more widely. The four windrows heaps of the experimentation involved combinations of either PVC tube passive aeration or manual turning with either ash or cow innards as an additional material. Time to maturity remained 60 days for the heaps with cattle innards and 28 days for those with ash, in each case regardless of the type of aeration. Decreased labour costs were not of sufficient magnitude to outweigh the other increases in costs (in particular, materials) and the lower production amounts. This resulted in production costs per tonne that were slightly higher for the PVC tube aeration method FCFA 15,500 versus FCFA 14,600 per tonne with cow innards as co-composting additive and FCFA 9,600 versus FCFA 7,000 per tonne with ash as the additive. While these results do not provide any new hope for improving...

Source of waste postindustrial vs postconsumer recycling

This is in marked contrast to post-consumer recycling which, despite many efforts and policy initiatives, remains at a low level. There are a number of barriers to increasing the levels of post-consumer plastic recycling which are related to uncertainty concerning waste quality and complexity. These barriers are inter-linked and include the fact that plastic waste for recycling needs to be free of contamination and relatively homogeneous. Household plastic waste is often mixed with other household waste such as paper, metals and food waste. To ensure that the plastic is suitable for recycling this type of waste needs to be sorted and cleaned prior to processing.

Plastic Bags Create Environmental Hazards

Focusing on the Actual Problem

Charlie Mayfield, chairman of retailer John Lewis, said that tackling packaging waste and reducing carbon emissions were far more important goals. We don't see reducing the use of plastic bags as our biggest priority, he said. Of all the waste that goes to landfill, 20 percent is household waste and 0.3 percent is plastic bags. John Lewis added that a scheme in Ireland had reduced plastic bag usage, but sales of bin liners had increased 400 percent.

Surveys of existing municipal waste management systems

For both Ouagadougou and Bamako, detailed reports were produced by CREPA and CEK respectively on the management of solid waste. It is interesting to see that amount and composition of household waste in the two cities appears to be relatively similar (see Tables 4, 5). In both cities, households produce on average about 0.6 kg of solid waste per person per day. The composition of that waste is dominated by sand and dust at about 50 percent, a reflection of the sahelian environment and living conditions. The organic fraction comprises roughly a third of household waste in both cities, though, which is not insignificant. The results from the surveys also highlight the importance of markets and hotels as sources of solid organic waste matter. In general, this waste is already recaptured and recycled probably because of the generally more homogeneous quality of the product and the need for such waste to effectively removed, given its relative spatial concentration in comparison to...

Hyperconsumerism Adds to the Trash Problem

To Murray, the problem isn't just the vast amounts of leftover food and household waste that we hand off to garbage collectors. It's the detritus of our hyper-consumerism. We throw away last year's model because we just have to have this year's model, he said. As a result, last year's model ends up in the waste stream.

Search and transaction costs

More evidently, public authorities can play a role in encouraging or promulgating the development of grading schemes for scrap and other wastes. For instance, Austria's Compost Ordinance specifies three grades, designed to facilitate the identification of potential uses. These have the effect of reducing the space for negotiation, and thus potentially reducing transaction costs. In addition, if dispute resolution mechanisms are put in place, they may also reduce transaction costs by reducing the need to identify potential sources of disagreement at the stage of contract preparation. Many trade associations have recognised this, sometimes with the support of public authorities. Similarly, the dissemination of standardised contracts may also help to reduce transaction costs. The Netherlands has recognised the value of this with respect to secondary construction materials, as has the United Kingdom in the area of wastepaper.

Analysis of organic matternutrient flows

The project concentrated on estimating the potential flows of organic waste material into urban and peri-urban agriculture. Results of the various surveys and experimentations provided a number of parameters which made it possible for LEI to calculate potentially how much solid organic waste material is available for use as compost and as an unsorted waste amender. This were also translated into amounts of the macronutrients, N, P and K. While this can be seen as an attempt to close the nutrient cycle, waste materials are more of a compliment to, than a substitute for, mineral fertiliser products, particularly for commercially-oriented and intensive horticultural producers. The waste is particularly valued for its organic matter content. The intensive irrigation of urban horticultural systems also means that estimating the significant nutrient flows due to leaching is difficult, implying that the estimation of nutrient balances, as opposed to some flows, was not feasible. Estimating...

Plastic Bag Ban Stops Progress

And most importantly, a ban is the one sure way to stop progress in its tracks. Modern plastic bags are the most environmentally friendly yet They thinned down a third between 1977 and 1990, and have even started to appear in biodegradable form (at least these compostable

Final Report Abstract

The project began with detailed characterisations of both the agricultural and waste management sectors in each of the two study cities. This included the use of participatory appraisal techniques as well as quantitative surveys. Policies affecting both of these sectors were inventoried and summarised. In addition, samples of existing waste products were taken and analysed for the presence of biological pathogens and heavy metals. All of this information, together with additional focus group discussions with stakeholders, contributed to the evaluation of constraints and potentials for improving the use of organic municipal waste in urban and peri-urban farming systems. This analysis supported the development of pilot projects and experiments concerning both the composting of waste and its use as a soil fertiliser. In Bamako, both urban and peri-urban farmers engaged in a process of participatory technology development. They first experimented with pit and windrow composting of urban...

Everyone Should Recycle

In the United States, composting is the province of the odd organic gardener. Here everyone separates out the organics kitchen scraps, bones, wet paper-like napkins, wrapping paper, boxes, even grass clippings and leaves. Pet detritus and litter appears to be optional It's organic, but if you have your doubts, they'll let you bag it separately. I've put hair from my brush in the organics, though I'm unsure about its chemical content. Organics go in a green, lidded bin under the sink and eventually into a green garbage bin outside with an aerated lid, to be collected with everything else. Then gardeners who don't want to keep their own compost pile can buy organic compost from the province for much less than Wal-Mart charges.

Solutions To Correct Situations That Might Occur

If the pile does not reduce in size or generate heat, composting may need a boost. If the pile is dry, add your composter as full as possible. Mix new with old, dry with wet, breaking up mats and clumps. If the pile is sweet smelling but not heating, it may need nitrogen. Add grass clippings, table scraps or a sprinkle of organic fertilizer from the garden centre. If the compost pile develops a foul odour, it may not be getting enough air. Loosen up the pile, break up clumps, unblock vents and perhaps add some wood chips to help the pile breath. Turning the pile always helps aeration. Compost in a container with a cover to prevent animals from getting into the composting materials. A wire mesh around the base can help to prevent pests from digging under the pile. Dig in or cover food waste immediately.

Pilot projects on use of waste products in periurban agriculture

The results from Bamako indicate that the the use of compost made from urban solid waste can be agronomically and economically attractive for farmers. Average yield improvements ranged from about 20 to almost 60 when compost was applied at 6 kg m2 as compared to using manure at the same application rate (see Figure 11). Indeed, on average, yields did also not differ signficantly from the manure control plots when compost was applied at the lower rate of 5 kg m2, a hypothesis that the farmers had proposed themselves. The improved performance of the compost is probably partly due to the use of the same type of manure as co-composter, ensuring that organic matter and nutrient content were higher. In general, farmers in Bamako were very pleased with the results of the experiment. They recognised that the increased cost of the compost, in comparison to manure, was more than compensated by the performance. Most interestingly, the farmers had ideas about how to vary the application rates of...

Environmental policies designed to reduce wasterelated environmental damages

Note that some municipalities have introduced bans on recyclables which do not have particularly acute environmental impacts but which can be recycled - i.e. composting of organic waste. Such measures fit under the heading of targeted recycling policies discussed above.

Extend Landfill Lifespans

Recycling's true value comes from preventing pollution and saving natural resources and energy, not landfill space. Still, it's important to note that recycling is largely responsible for averting a landfill crisis in many parts of the country. Recycling and composting diverted nearly 70 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000, up from 34 million tons in 1990.

Energy from rubbish

Wasted Paper The Dumping Site

After you have reused and recycled your metal, glass, paper, plastics and fabric, there is still a lot of waste to dispose of. Most of it is ordinary household waste. I lousehold waste is usually dumped in landfill sites. These arc places where somebody dug stone or metals out of the ground and left a big hole. You can fill that hole with rubbish. It is also possible to burn rubbish to produce energy. The smoke can be toxic, so you need to do it carefully. Some countries have 'Energy from Waste' plans. In Denmark, Japan and Switzerland, more than half of ordinary household waste is now burned to produce electricity.

Gerald Scott

Degradation Polymethylmethacrylat Co2

1.2 COMPOSTING OF PLASTICS IN MIXED HOUSEHOLD AND GARDEN WASTE The technology of composting to give added value to domestic waste is likely to increase rapidly during the next few years. It is claimed that by the end of the century, every household in Germany will be connected to a municipal composting system6 and other European countries are expected to follow. Ironically, in rural China and in other parts of the Far East, composting has always been the most important way of using waste and with the advent of plastics, severe problems are now being experienced with non-degradable plastics packaging and mulching film. Many manufacturers of de6gradable plastics are targeting the composting environment for their products6 and several commercial photo-biodegradable 7polyolefins are readily oxidised and bioassimilated in aerobic composters. For the reasons given above, biodegradable PVC would not be acceptable in such an application. able. In particular, degradability and composting are...

Chart Ldpe Recycling Epa

Reidy (1992) reports that the average composition of waste in Sweden in the years up to 1990 is 35-45 paper, 8-10 plastics, 20-40 other assorted recyclable materials, and 25-35 food and garden waste. A high content of paper and increasing content of plastics with reduced content of metals leads to high calorific value of 10-12 MJ kg. Packaging waste accounts for about half of all municipal solid waste in Sweden. Around 35 billion packaged products are sold each year. Attempts have been made to divide domestic waste into fractions, and to segregate products at source. Three different systems are operated

It considers relevant issues, such as the biodegradability versus recycling debate broad policies including council recycling of plastic bottles the practice of providing free plastic carrier bags by supermarkets through to individual steps to reduce household waste. This edition further expands on the wider context of plastics waste management, life cycle analysis and legislation.

Economic analysis

One solution seems to be to make use of underutilised transport resources at little or no additional cost in order to reduce the price of delivered compost for farmers. The economic analysis indicates that it may be economically viable for finished compost to be transported back into the city to urban farmers when lorries belonging to the operator of the treatment and disposal depot are returning empty for the next load. The additional costs of transport would still keep the cost of the compost within reasonable bounds because these would be less than if farmers had to pay independent transporters the cost of transporting the compost. Such cross-subsidising is not foreseen in the core plans being proposed in both cities. In each case the use of the organic material for composting is proposed as an end-of-pipe solution. The SDGD in Ouagadougou even proposes that the municipality be prepared to subsidise the sale of the compost by the operator of the waste depot to farmers, in...

Literature Reviews

The reviews of experience and existing documentation in Bamako and Ouagadougou were used as internal project documents. They highlighted the lack of available information on the (peri)-urban agriculture sector in the two cities, and the relative lack of attention that the sector has received by official organisations. The international review underlined the absence of systematic studies on the potential for recycling urban waste into (peri)-urban agriculture, and produced useful information on relevant norms for the quality of compost.

Helpful Hints

Weeds and trimmings should be shredded because the composting process works best when the organic pieces are small. The composter contents should be moist like a wrung-out sponge. If the contents are too dry, it will take overly long to compost and if too wet, the contents may begin to smell. Turn or mix the contents every couple of weeks or each time you add new material. This keeps the contents well aerated. Composting can be done in the winter. You can add materials to your composter all winter long. The breakdown process slows down or stops when the pile is frozen, but it will start up again in the spring. Thorough turning in the spring will reactivate the pile. Empty the composter in the fall to make plenty of room.


Can You Freeze Brown Sugar?

Freezing brown sugar can actually preserve its quality. When storing brown sugar, try to keep it in a cool area, which makes the freezer an ideal location.

As well as using the freezer, brown sugar can also be stored in a tight-lidded container. In that case, make sure that the container has no rust as this could negatively influence flavor. Never place brown sugar in the refrigerator.

When ready to use the frozen brown sugar, remove it from the freezer and let it return to room temperature for at least 2 hours. If the brown sugar has ice crystals, simply stir to remove these ice crystals and preserve quality.


Quantum Numbers

Quantum Numbers

Introduction to Quantum Numbers

Scientists from Bohr to de Broglie to Heisenberg have attempted to describe the nature of electrons. Erwin Schrödinger and Pauld Dirac developed equations that for now best describe the various states that electrons can assume. These states are known as quantum states and are described by four quantum numbers.

Principal Quantum Number (n)

The principal quantum number describes the energy level (or shell) that an electron occupies. It is shown as a positive integer n={1,2,3,4,…}

Oribtal Quantum Number (L)

The orbital quantum number identifies the subshell — the shape of the space the electron occupies. It is shown as a positive integer L={0,1,2,3,…(n-1)}, which corresponds to the subshell letter names s=0, p=1, d=2, f=3, etc.

Magnetic Quantum Number (mL)

The magnetic quantum number indicates a specific orbital within the subshell (since many subshells consist of multiple orbitals). It is shown as an integer mL={_l,…,0,…,+L}.

The maximum value of the magnetic quantum number depends on the orbital quantum number — the s subshell has one orbital, the p subshell has three, the d subshell has five, and the f subshell has seven orbitals.

Spin Quantum Number (ms)

Electrons spin within their orbitals, producing magnetic fields. These spins and field orientations are described by the spin quantum number.

For every combination of principal, orbital, and magnetic quantum numbers, the spin quantum number (ms) can only be +1/2 or -1/2.

Pauli Exclusion Principle

According to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, no two electrons in an atom can have the same set of quantum numbers. Thus, the two electrons in a helium atom may have the same principal (n=1), orbital (L=0), and magnetic (mL=0) quantum numbers, but the spin quantum numbers must be different – one must be ms=+1/2 and the other ms=-1/2.


Multivariate anomaly detection for Earth observations: a comparison of algorithms and feature extraction techniques

Authors: M Flach and F Gans and A Brenning and J Denzler and M Reichstein and E Rodner and S Bathiany and P Bodesheim and Y Guanche and S Sippel and M D Mahecha
Journal: Earth System Dynamics
Year: 2017

Today, many processes at the Earth's surface are constantly monitored by multiple data streams. These observations have become central to advancing our understanding of vegetation dynamics in response to climate or land use change. Another set of important applications is monitoring effects of extreme climatic events, other disturbances such as fires, or abrupt land transitions. One important methodological question is how to reliably detect anomalies in an automated and generic way within multivariate data streams, which typically vary seasonally and are interconnected across variables. Although many algorithms have been proposed for detecting anomalies in multivariate data, only a few have been investigated in the context of Earth system science applications. In this study, we systematically combine and compare feature extraction and anomaly detection algorithms for detecting anomalous events. Our aim is to identify suitable workflows for automatically detecting anomalous patterns in multivariate Earth system data streams. We rely on artificial data that mimic typical properties and anomalies in multivariate spatiotemporal Earth observations like sudden changes in basic characteristics of time series such as the sample mean, the variance, changes in the cycle amplitude, and trends. This artificial experiment is needed as there is no gold standard for the identification of anomalies in real Earth observations. Our results show that a well-chosen feature extraction step (e.g., subtracting seasonal cycles, or dimensionality reduction) is more important than the choice of a particular anomaly detection algorithm. Nevertheless, we identify three detection algorithms (k-nearest neighbors mean distance, kernel density estimation, a recurrence approach) and their combinations (ensembles) that outperform other multivariate approaches as well as univariate extreme-event detection methods. Our results therefore provide an effective workflow to automatically detect anomalies in Earth system science data.


Tech leaders

This is a about new and current leader in a work place. The does and don’t of being a leader which most people can deal with but others it would take sometime. And the world of technology and having the skill of the next generation of technical leader.

Make a lasting impact

Most technical leaders enjoy the thrill of meeting the demands of an ever-changing industry. Technologies come and go. Processes, organizational structures, job description, and titles all rotate through a mix master of constantly shifting fads.

Poor predictors of leadership success

It’s natural to assume that people with strong technical skills would be able to leverage those talent to enhance the productivity of everyone around them.

Good predictor of success emotional flexibility among engineers is emotional self awareness and flexibility. Is a requirement for being a good leader. Good manager are aware of their own emotions but don’t necessarily act on them. You can spot them by take criticism well; don’t easily take offense. Reflect positive emotions such as eagerness and enthusiasm. Resist succumbing to a group’s negative emotions. Stay calm when others don’t or can’t.

You can see that tech leader would have some strengths and weaknesses in the role of being a tech leader . And don’t mentor people only because it’s part of the job description. You do it because it’s valuable for the people we mentor and fulfilling to us.

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