As Soyuz Rolls ISS Crew Work On Science

Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX)
Dec 20, 2011

The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft that will carry new Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko, Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers into space rolled out to the launch pad Monday at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The launch is scheduled for Wednesday at 8:16 a.m. EST, with NASA TV coverage beginning at 7:30 a.m. The Soyuz will dock to the International Space Station Friday morning.

Aboard the station, Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank worked with the Biomechanical Analysis of Treadmill Exercise on the International Space Station, or Treadmill Kinematics, experiment.

Treadmill Kinematics studies the difference between exercising on a treadmill in space and on Earth. It is the first rigorous investigation to determine the most beneficial treadmill exercise conditions to maintain or improve crew health during long-duration spaceflight.

Burbank also continued his work with the Preliminary Advanced Colloids Experiment-2, or PACE-2. Housed in the Fluids Integrated Rack, PACE-2 studies the effects of vibration on particles suspended in fluid in the space environment.

This work aids in the development and optimization of crew procedures for the future Advanced Colloids Experiment, also known as ACE, which will fly samples that may have an important impact on our understanding of fundamental physics.

Additionally, he updated software for the SOdium LOading in Microgravity (SOLO) experiment. SOLO researches the ways in which the human body retains fluid and salt during bed rest and space flights. Subject crew members follow a diet of constant low or normal sodium intake and increased fluid consumption.

Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin worked to replace several of the panels, fuses and batteries inside the complex's Russian segment.

All three crew members continued unpacking supplies from the ISS Progress 45 cargo craft, which arrived at the station on Nov. 2.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/As_Soyuz_Rolls_ISS_Crew_Work_On_Science_999.html.

Iowa State engineers study how hills, nearby turbines affect wind energy production

Ames IA (SPX)
Dec 20, 2011

Hui Hu pulled a model wind turbine from the top of an office filing cabinet. The turbine tower was just 10 inches high. Its three blades were 10 inches in diameter. It was a perfect 1:320 scale reproduction of the 80-meter diameter wind turbines spinning across Iowa, the country's second-ranked state in installed wind power capacity.

That mini turbine is helping a research team led by Hu, an Iowa State University associate professor of aerospace engineering, understand how hills, valleys and the placement of turbines affect the productivity of onshore wind farms.

While the wind industry has data about offshore turbine performance over flat water - especially from European studies - Hu said there's little data about the effects of uneven ground on wind turbines.

And so Hu and his research team have created the mini turbines and started running tests in Iowa State's $1.25 million Aerodynamic/Atmospheric Boundary Layer Wind and Gust Tunnel.

"We want to work with the wind turbine industry to transfer some of our findings," Hu said. "We can help boost total energy capture. And we can lengthen the lifetimes of wind turbines, making them more efficient."

The research team led by Hu includes Richard Wlezien, professor and Vance and Arlene Coffman Endowed Chair in Aerospace Engineering; Partha Sarkar, a professor of aerospace engineering, of civil, construction and environmental engineering, and director of Iowa State's Wind Simulation and Testing Laboratory; Zifeng Yang, a former Iowa State post-doctoral researcher and now an assistant professor at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; Wei Tian, a post-doctoral research associate in aerospace engineering; and Ahmet Ozbay, a graduate student in aerospace engineering.

The engineers' studies are supported by a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation and Novel Development.

The researchers are using wind tunnel tests to quantify the characteristics of surface winds over hilly terrains, determine the best placement of wind turbines on hilly terrains and find the best design for large wind farms on hilly terrains.

Experiments include:
+ Mini generators mounted inside the mini turbine nacelles measure power production

+ Sensors mounted at the base of the mini turbines measure the wind loads placed on turbines and turbine towers

+ Advanced flow measurements such as particle image velocimetry (which uses a laser and camera to take nearly simultaneous images that show the movement and velocity of individual particles) to measure wind flow fields, the wind vortices created by the tips of turbine blades and the total wind energy captured by the blades.

Hu said preliminary results indicate that wind turbines on hilly terrain are hit with much higher wind loads than turbines on flat terrain. The experiments also show that, compared with turbines on flat ground, wind flowing over hilly terrain recovers its power potential more rapidly as it moves from turbine to turbine.

Data from the wind tunnel indicate a turbine on flat ground in the wake of another turbine at a distance equal to six times the diameter of the turbines loses 13 percent of power production. A turbine in the wake of another with the same downstream distance on hilly ground loses 3 percent of power production.

"That means you can put wind turbines closer together in hilly terrain," he said.

In November, Hu, Yang and Sarkar published the first paper about their wind-turbine studies - "Visualization of the tip vortices in a wind turbine wake" on the Journal of Visualization's website. The three researchers also presented findings of their turbine wake studies at the June 2011 Applied Aerodynamics Conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The project's next steps include building a nine-turbine array in Iowa State's big wind tunnel to study power production and wind flows through a mini wind farm.

Hu is confident that data from the experiments can be valuable as more and more wind farms are built across Iowa and the country.

"These studies are telling us things we didn't know before," Hu said. "And this will help optimize the design of wind turbine layouts with consideration of the terrain."

Source: Wind Daily.
Link: http://www.winddaily.com/reports/Iowa_State_engineers_study_how_hills_nearby_turbines_affect_wind_energy_production_999.html.

Ocean dead zones shrinking habitat for blue marlins, other tropical billfish and tunas

Washington DC (SPX)
Dec 20, 2011

The science behind counting fish in the ocean to measure their abundance has never been simple. A new scientific paper authored by NOAA Fisheries biologist Eric Prince, Ph.D., and eight other scientists shows that expanding ocean dead zones - driven by climate change - have added a new wrinkle to that science.

In the December 4 paper published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, these scientists sound an alarm that expanding ocean dead zones are shrinking the habitat for high value fish such as marlins in the tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean. As dead zones expand, marlins, other billfish and tunas move into surface waters where they are more vulnerable to fishing. Dead zones are areas in the ocean where oxygen levels are so low that creatures cannot survive over the long term.

"By combining the disciplines of oceanography and fishery biology, we are getting a much clearer picture of how climate driven dead zones are shrinking the habitat for some of the world's most valuable fish to commercial and recreational fishermen," Prince said. "With a clearer picture, we will be able to make better management decisions for the long-term health of these species and their ecosystems."

In the past, Prince has studied the movement of marlins and other billfish in ocean waters off Florida and the Caribbean as well as in the tropical waters of the eastern Pacific.

The new paper combines Prince's research on marlins in the northeast tropical Atlantic Ocean off Africa with oceanographic research in the same waters by Lothar Stramma and his colleagues at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science in Kiel, Germany, as well as scientists at the University of Miami Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Prince tagged blue marlin, one of the most valuable recreational species on the planet, with pop up satellite tracking devices to record their horizontal and vertical movement. He compared this information on fish movement with detailed oceanographic maps developed by Stramma and his colleagues on the same ocean areas showing the location of zones with low dissolved oxygen.

Prince, Stramma and Sunke Schmidtko, who was at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle at the time of the research, are the three equally contributing first authors of the paper.

Blue marlins and many other billfish are high energy fish that need large amounts of dissolved oxygen. By comparing the movement of the blue marlins and the location of low-oxygen areas, the scientists show that blue marlins venture deeper when dissolved oxygen levels are higher and remain in shallower surface waters when low dissolved oxygen areas encroach on their habitat from below.

"The shrinking of habitat due to expanding dead zones needs to be taken into account in scientific stock assessments and management decisions for tropical pelagic billfish and tuna," said Prince.

"Without taking it into account, stock assessments could be providing false signals that stocks are healthy, when in fact they are not, thus allowing overfishing that further depletes these fish stocks and threatens the sustainability of our fisheries."

While the new paper focuses on the tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean off Africa, the expansion of low-oxygen zones is occurring in all tropical ocean basins and throughout the subarctic Pacific, making the compression of habitat a global issue. The problem for pelagic fishes in the tropical Atlantic is particularly acute, the authors note, because many of these fish species and the unintended catch, called bycatch, are already fully exploited or overfished.

The new paper follows earlier research by Prince published in 2010 in Fisheries Oceanography based on tagging of marlins and sailfish in the waters off Florida and the Caribbean, which also showed these billfish prefer oxygen-rich waters close to the surface and move away from waters low in dissolved oxygen.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ocean_dead_zones_shrinking_habitat_for_blue_marlins_other_tropical_billfish_and_tunas_999.html.

China villagers warned against protest march

Beijing (AFP)
Dec 19, 2011

Villagers in southern China in a rare stand-off with local Communist authorities said Monday they were being bombarded with calls from officials to warn them not to take part in a planned protest march.

The residents of Wukan, which has been under police blockade for over a week, say they will march on local government offices in a nearby town on Wednesday if their demands are not met.

They want authorities to release three villagers detained on December 9 for allegedly inciting riots in September, and to hand over the body of a fourth, Xue Jinbo, who died in police custody.

A fifth villager detained at the same time has been accused of unrelated crimes, and the villagers have dropped their demand that he too be released.

But they also want a full investigation into what they say are years of illegal land grabs that has cost many local farmers their livelihood.

Addressing a rally in Wukan on Monday afternoon, villager Yang Semao said the government was bombarding families with telephone calls warning them not to petition, a commonly used term for complaining to the government.

"They even called Xue Jinbo's family and threatened them with arrest if this continues," Yang told the rally, referring to the 42-year-old father of three, who villagers suspect was beaten to death. Authorities say he died of a heart attack.

Wukan, in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong, has been under police blockade for more than a week after residents drove out local Communist leaders in September.

Officials in Guangdong have refused to comment to AFP, but there are recent signs they may be trying to engage with the villagers to persuade them to end their stand-off.

On Monday Lin Zulian, an unofficial spokesman for the village who along with Yang is wanted by police over the September riots, said authorities sent an envoy to his home on Sunday in an apparent attempt to defuse the situation.

Lin said the envoy had urged him to turn himself in, saying he would be treated leniently if he did so, and to end the village protests.

But he said villagers would not back down from their demands.

"I told (the envoy) if they do not release the three detainees and return the body, then we would march to Lufeng on Wednesday and petition again," Lin, 65, told AFP, referring to town near Wukan where the local government is based.

"I also said that the village wants a full investigation into the land requisition and into those responsible."

Lin, who has taken charge of briefing the large numbers of foreign journalists who have flocked to Wukan, denied that he had broken any laws, saying he was actually trying to uphold the law.

"All that I have been trying to do is to see that the laws and regulations on land acquisitions are implemented fairly and the central government policies on land are implemented in accordance with law," he said.

"For this they call me a criminal, it is unacceptable."

Source: Sino Daily.
Link: http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/China_villagers_warned_against_protest_march_999.html.

British army Lynx upgrades complete

YEOVIL, England, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- AgustaWestland in Britain has marked the end of its Lynx Mk9A helicopter upgrade program for the British army air corps.

The production total of 22 helicopters was ordered as Urgent Operational Requirements in November 2008 -- for 12 aircraft -- and March 2010 for the remainder.

"The Mk9A program has been a major success story for both AgustaWestland and the Ministry of Defense," said AgustaWestland Ltd. Chairman Graham Cole.

"Many doubted this major upgrade program could be done in the timescale initially laid down, but I am very pleased to say not only will we complete the delivery of the final aircraft in December but we will have achieved this milestone three months ahead of schedule."

The upgrade to the helicopters included work on the aircraft's main gear box, top deck structure and rear fuselage for a new engine, the CTS800-4N. Changes were also made for new engine controls and digital cockpit displays.

To mark completion of the upgrades a ceremony was held at the company's Yeovil, England, facility.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/12/19/British-army-Lynx-upgrades-complete/UPI-19761324308414/.

Oil strikes prompt emergency in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Protesters in western Kazakhstan expressed solidarity with striking oil workers under what one demonstrator said was the watchful eye of security forces.

At least 13 people were killed and another 86 were wounded in clashes between striking oil workers and national police, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev last weekend imposed a state of emergency in the western oil city of Zhanaozen and blamed "hooligans" for the violence.

Police, he said, opened fire on demonstrators to "protect themselves and local citizens and preserve order."

Oil workers have protested since May, calling for better pay and the right to organize independent labor unions. Clashes escalated Friday as the country celebrated its 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union.

Protesters during recent clashes set fire to a hotel and the regional office of state-run oil company OzenMunaiGaz. The company, RFE/RL reports, said oil production wasn't impacted greatly because of the strikes.

Oil workers continued their strike last weekend despite the government crackdown. One worker, who gave his name to RFE/RL as Esbol, said workers wanted an investigation into the police response.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/12/19/Oil-strikes-prompt-emergency-in-Kazakhstan/UPI-64231324303854/.

Spain's next PM: Very tough times lie ahead

December 19, 2011 — MADRID (AP) — Warning that very hard times lie ahead for Spain, the country's next prime minister said his incoming conservative government aims to reduce the country's deficit by €16.5 billion ($21.6 billion) next year.

In a keenly awaited speech to Parliament a month after being elected, Mariano Rajoy still did not specify what bitter cocktail of spending cuts and tax hikes might be used to get the deficit down to Spain's stated goal of 4.4 percent of GDP in 2012.

The deficit was 9.2 percent of GDP last year and estimated by the outgoing Socialist government to be about 6 percent this year — a figure Rajoy suggested may be too optimistic because the economy posted no growth in the third quarter. That stagnation prompted Spain, the IMF, the EU and many private economists to lower the country's growth estimate for this year from 1.3 percent to 0.8 percent.

Spain was in recession for nearly two years and posted only listless growth this year, and some economists expect its growth could turn negative again. Rajoy said Spain's staggering jobless rate had risen to around 23 percent overall and around 46 percent for people under 25.

"The panorama could not be more somber," Rajoy said. Spain's overall debt stands at €706.34 billion ($919.6 billion) as of the end of September, up 15 percent from a year ago. The new figure is about 66 percent of GDP and includes the substantial debt held by Spain's 17 semiautonomous regions.

Outlining his economic plans for the first time, Rajoy said he would end a freeze on cost-of-living adjustments for pensions but every other category of government spending would now subject to review.

Rajoy said by year's end, his government will approve an extension of the 2011 budget as a stopgap and then offer a full 2012 budget by the end of March. Except for security forces and positions in basic public services, he said government jobs that become vacant as people retire will not be filled.

Spain's opposition Socialist Party slammed Rajoy for providing few specifics on how he will cut government services to reduce the deficit or create jobs. But the Socialists will be able to do little to counter Rajoy's proposals, since his party won an absolute majority in the Nov. 20 election.

"He didn't explain how he's going to do it," said Jose Antonio Alonso, spokesman for the Socialists. "It was a disappointing speech ... it was ambiguous and it wasn't clear." Spanish stocks and bonds rose Monday in line with increases across Europe. The Madrid stock exchange was up 1.6 percent while borrowing costs for Spain's 10-year bond dropped 0.13 of a percentage point to 5.13 percent.

Spain's economy was upended after the 2008 credit crunch exposed a national real estate bubble. Now borrowing costs are rising for the eurozone's fourth-largest economy, and Spain is often cited along with Italy as troubled economies that might have to join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in accepting international help. But both Spain's and Italy's economies are each larger than those three smaller nations combined and considered too big for Europe's rescue fund to handle.

The Fitch Ratings agency warned last Friday it was considering downgrading the credit ratings of Spain, Italy and four other eurozone nations. Rajoy's Popular Party won the Nov. 20 elections by a landslide over the ruling Socialists. Rajoy will be voted in as premier on Tuesday, then formally take office Wednesday at the residence of King Juan Carlos.

Another key focus for the new premier will be labor market reforms designed to encourage hiring, such as changes to the way companies and unions negotiate collective bargaining accords. Rajoy said he has given Spain's main business federation and labor unions until mid-January to come up with their own reforms, otherwise the government will impose a plan.

"These reforms must be done as soon as possible," Rajoy told the 350-member Congress of Deputies, the lower chamber of Parliament. He also announced tax changes to help self-employed people and small and medium-size companies, and says banks heavily exposed to the burst real estate bubble need to get rid of thousands of unsold homes they hold. Rajoy said Spain is saddled with about 700,000 unsold new homes from the construction binge.

Rajoy also envisions further bank mergers — troubled savings banks in Spain have already fused from 45 to less than 20 over the past two years. Also, Rajoy endorsed a business leaders' proposal to boost productivity by moving most midday holidays to Monday — ending a cherished Spanish practice of creating four-day weekends when holidays fall on a Tuesday or Thursday.

Antonio Barroso, an analyst with Eurasia group, said Rajoy's measures addressed Spain's most pressing difficulties, such as unemployment and a vulnerable banking sector. Barroso said "controlling expenditure is the number one problem" but reducing the deficit and reforming public administration will be easier than restoring the health of the financial sector and tampering with labor entitlements.

He said tackling the problems of Spain's financial sector "is very complicated," adding that the Bank of Spain and the Popular Party are both split about the possibility of setting up a bad bank for toxic assets. Another possibility is establishing an asset protection scheme for financial institutions with bad property debts.

"The situation is very fluid," Barroso said of government solutions to the country's debt crisis.

Alan Clendenning in Madrid and Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.