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Cutthroat Trout in Utah
No full textThis fact sheet is intended to inform anglers, aquatic recreationalists, and backyard conservationists interested in learning about a Utah native species, current restoration steps, and how their actions can help professionals restore native cutthroat trout populations
Utah Women, Discrimination, and Sexism: Experiences And Perceptions
No full textDuring the fall of 2023, Utah Women & Leadership Project (UWLP) researchers conducted a statewide study to establish a baseline for public perceptions related to the awareness, understanding, and attitudes about challenges that Utah women and girls face. In early 2024, UWLP published 20 research summaries1 that shared the results of this comprehensive study. Then, in the fall of 2024, the survey was administered again around the state of Utah with slight refinements. Between January and April of 2025, we have shared the results of the 2024 data by releasing six white papers, this being the final report in the series. The full set of reports include the following: Women in the Workplace: Part 1: Utahns\u27 Awareness, Understanding, and Attitudes Women in the Workplace: Part 2: Utahns\u27 Awareness, Understanding, and Attitudes Women\u27s Safety and Security: Utahns\u27 Awareness, Understanding, and Attitudes Women, Finance, and Education: Utahns\u27 Awareness, Understanding, and Attitudes Home, Health, Community, & Allyship: Utahns\u27 Awareness, Understanding, and Attitudes Utah Women, Discrimination, and Sexism: Experiences and Perceptions
The comprehensive study was designed to support the efforts of A Bolder Way Forward (BWF), which is a statewide initiative focused on ensuring that more Utah girls, women, and their families thrive. Each area of focus (spoke) has bold goals with data-driven metrics to measure progress. This research focuses on collecting and analyzing data to help track this progress for those goals based on potential shifts in public awareness, understanding, and/or attitudes related to each spoke. The research documents the status quo and pinpoints shifts that are critical for Utahns to progress in the topic areas.
The following lists the five overarching categories within BWF and the 18 spokes included in this research: Education: Finance, Higher Education Attainment, and K–12 Initiatives Community Engagement: Political Representation, Boards and Commissions, and Civic Engagement/Advocacy Safety and Security: Child Sexual Abuse, Domestic Violence, Poverty and Homelessness, Sexual Assault, and Sexual Harassment and Gender-Based Discrimination Health and Wellbeing: Health Across the Lifespan, and Home and Family Workplace: Childcare/Pre-K Programs, Entrepreneurship, Gender Pay Gap, Leadership Development, Organizational Strategies and Workplace Culture, STEM Fields, and Workforce Development
In the first five white papers, we presented quantitative results in the 18 areas of focus, with applicable qualitative analyses for each. Survey participants had been encouraged to share additional thoughts, insights, or ideas related to the challenges that women and girls face in Utah. During the qualitative analysis, researchers noticed an overarching theme of discrimination and sexism throughout the responses in most spoke areas. Hence, to understand more deeply what Utahns had written, we reanalyzed the qualitative responses, specifically looking for those themes and gleaning further understanding. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to share a comprehensive overview of the responses offered by survey participants—with an eye toward understanding discrimination and sexism—to the one open-ended question posed at the conclusion of the survey
Development of the MUSIC Hall Thruster Family for Small Satellite Missions: Current Status and Upcoming Missions
Get PDFThe MUSIC – MUlti-Stage Ignition Compact – Hall thruster family is developed to operate at system power below 100 W making it ideal for small satellites ranging from 3 U to a few 100 kg. The concept relies on the versatility of the MUSIC thruster unit which can be operated in various modes, and the modularity of the peripherals, i.e., the power and electronic control units, and propellant management assembly. This contribution expands the existing scarce literature on low-power Hall thruster systems that are qualified for flight, presents an overview of the capabilities of the MUSIC Hall thruster, past and future missions adopting this system, and expands on the future developments planned for this satellite propulsion system
ECAPS High-Performance Green Propulsion – Enabling Tactically Responsive Space Missions
No full textIn a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape where space is increasingly viewed as the fourth operational domain, tactically responsive launch capabilities and in-orbit maneuverability are critical. The ability to pre-load spacecraft and maintain them in a ready-to-launch state enables quicker response times, essential for strategic operations. Longterm storable, non/low-hazardous green propellants, such as ECAPS’ LMP-103S based on Ammonium DiNitramide (ADN), are key to this agility. These propellants offer improved performance, reduced environmental and operational risks, and facilitate faster spacecraft processing and storage. ECAPS High-Performance Green Propulsion (HPGP) technology has achieved extensive flight heritage with its 1N thruster, across 30+ missions, typically designed for 3- to-5-year mission lifetimes. To support longer missions, propellant compatibility and storability are crucial, enabling both safe pre-loading and long-duration storage. ECAPS recently completed an end-to-end study to validate the long-term storability of LMP-103S, which has remained stable for over 15 years, with no significant degradation. The test system included COTS flight hardware, such as titanium tanks and stainless/titanium valves, to mirror operational environments. This paper presents the results from this storability test and discusses the key benefits of low-toxic propellant storage, handling, and transportation. Additionally, it highlights experiences with spacecraft pre-fueling, including the logistical and operational considerations for handling and storing pre-loaded spacecraft prior to launch. Lastly, the paper outlines mission examples with lifetimes exceeding 9 years and still ongoing, showcasing the practical impact of these advancements on tactical rapid response capabilities
IBIS Advanced Technology for SmallSATS
No full textFor many years, ESA has been involved in attempts to develop a commercially attractive radiation hardened true digital Sunsensor. Although both Galileo Avionica (IT) (now Leonardo) and TNO (NL) developed a sensor based on standard active pixel sensors (APS) none of these products became commercially successful. Although TNO started the development of a single chip true digital Sunsensor in 2004 and a prototype was successfully tested in 2011,[1] [2] the product was neither radiation hardened nor optimized for volume production. Development of this prototype into a real sensor was however never completed.
Although both a digital output and albedo sensitivity for a Sunsensor are two properties high on the Wishlist of many satellite builders, a single chip true digital Sunsensor has never been built before. This is why ESA started an ARTES program in cooperation with Lens R&D B.V. and Systematic Design B.V. that was supposed to lead to a cost-effective single chip radiation hardened true digital Sunsensor.
Advantages of such a sensor are: Minimum SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) True radiation hardened electronics due to the use of special design techniques and radiation hard cell designs High reliability due to the use of a minimum number of external components and re-use of an already proven mechanical concept High repeatability and yield due to the use of modern chip technology (0.18μm XFAB)
Combined with an optimization for volume manufacturing (as used by Lens R&D B.V. for the production of their BiSon and MAUS Sunsensors), the new IBIS sensor (Intensity Based Image sensor) is expected to provide the most cost-effective solution for high reliability Sun sensing available on the market once completed.
As the sensor will be facing the Sun directly in vacuum, a lot of emphasis is given to the reduction of the power consumption. Performance predictions as performed during the design of the chip showed an estimated power consumption of less than 130mW for the entire sensor. Initial measurements however show a power consumption of only 33mW which is significantly lower and a pleasant surprise
Along with measurements that have shown the power consumption to be significantly lower than expected, the majority of the functionality could be proven on the first prototypes. A limited number of design errors will still need fixing before a fully functional sensor can be offered to the market. Next to this a significant amount of radiation testing will need to be done before the requested 15 years in GEO can be guaranteed. Despite a development trajectory of more than 20 Years, the sensor will however still be unique and provide a solution long sought for
Development and Test of Deep Learning Techniques for Stereo-based Pose Estimation of Small Satellites
No full textFor in-orbit servicing, spacecraft must conduct a variety of tasks known as Rendezvous & Proximity Operations, Docking (RPOD). The ability to accurately and reliably estimate a target object’s pose is required to perform these tasks. In computer vision, deep learning techniques been shown to significantly outperform classical techniques. However, there are several barriers to adoption of such technologies in spaceflight, related to development and verification/validation processes, and constraints of the target flight hardware.
In this paper, we outline our approach and limited results from a recently completed project on the development and test of a neural network designed to allow a servicing spacecraft to estimate the pose of a target object in proximity, in real-time, using stereo vision, so as to enable planning for subsequent maneuvers.
Developing and testing pose estimation approaches requires a reliable test bed capable of providing representativesimulation of relative movements as well as hardware analogous to that used for space applications. To address this, we first set up a facility we named the Orbital Autonomy Lab (OAL), which consists of two Universal Robots arms and an OptiTrack motion capture system. One arm was configured as a servicing spacecraft arm with a stereocamera attached; the other was used to place a mock satellite in several pose configurations, in view of the stereocamera. Using this setup, we collected 11,539 stereo pairs of a mock satellite in different positions and lighting configurations, emulating realistic approach and inspection paths.
A core facet of this study was to gauge performance of neural networks on a flight-representative board. Given our previous experience in deploying CNNs for actual spaceflight missions, the Kria KV260 was selected as it is very similar to the popular Xiphos Q8 that was used in previous projects.
For model development, we considered key constraints. First, the model must be lightweight to allow for quick inference on a flight-rated board. Second, the model needs to learn the target’s pose without prior knowledge of its shape. Third, the model needs to be generalizable across target poses and lighting conditions and approach scenarios. Following our previous experience in developing neural networks for spaceflight applications, we investigated many design approaches. During testing, we tracked L1 loss, orientation error, translation error, and inference speed, to gauge performance. Subsequently, we developed and tested three models, and selected one, dubbed PosenatorV2 with a dual MobileNetV3 backbone encoder as a final candidate for deployment on the KV260 for testing.
Our targets for Mean Translation Error and Mean Angular Error were 0.5cm and 5° respectively. Through our final test results for the dual-arm sequences, we were able to achieve 0.61cm and 2.34° respectively. For assessing performance on the Kria KV260, we were able to achieve a time from image capture to inference at just under 1.5 seconds. In comparison, running this experiment with a model on a Heroku server, we were able to achieve a time of ~0.5 seconds
Gastric Survivability of \u3ci\u3eStreptomyces Narbonensis\u3c/i\u3e
Get PDFHuman sciences and medicine have continually been advancing, and taken off in the last few centuries. This has included the development of many new medicines, antibiotics, and disinfectants. Antibiotics have to be able to survive and perform its duty within the human body, despite the changes in pH that occur naturally within the body in response to stimuli (Cotter, 2003). If a bacteria is unable to adapt to the pH environment of the human body in which it is placed, it will not be able to survive and continue to reproduce. The bacteria may be able to adapt via membrane changes and differing metabolic processes (Percival, 2014).The isolate, SP25-LAH-13, was discovered to be Streptomyces narbonesis, a spore-forming, gram-positive bacteria which has shown to have antimicrobial properties (Bacdive, 2024). If those properties would be able to be used as antibiotics, then they, too, must be able to survive human pH environments. The experiment tests the ability of S. narbonesis to survive in stimulated gastric environments. There have been other experiments involving S. narbonesis properties (Han et al., 2012), that allow for the prediction that it will be able to grow in environments of different pHs, and therefore can be a useful resource in future antibiotics
\u3ci\u3ePeribacillus simplex\u3c/i\u3e Does Not Exhibit Antimicrobial Properties Against \u3ci\u3eStaphylococcus\u3c/i\u3e
Get PDFAntibiotics are powerful drugs that combat previously fatal diseases. These miracle drugs have saved countless lives, but have the tendency to be misused. They are used incorrectly to treat patients who don\u27t need them, and given to animals for non therapeutic use. Antibiotics are also known to pollute soils and groundwater all around the world (3). As antibiotics are found more readily in the environment, they encourage evolution, recombination, and dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria (5). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (6) antibiotic resistance kills at least 1.27 million people worldwide for diseases that used to be treatable. We need new antibiotics from novel bacteria. From locally collected soil, we isolated a bacterial species called Peribacillus simplex. We found that it contains 82 antibiotic-associated genes, including those related to antibiotic biosynthesis, and exhibits some antimicrobial properties (7). Our experiment works to explore the antibiotic properties of Peribacillus simplex against Staphylococcus
Freedom to Change: Comparing U.S. And Norwegian Recidivism
Get PDFThe U.S. criminal justice system is set up to fail those leaving
Drivers of Recruitment for a Population of Cutthroat Trout in Northern Utah
Get PDFUnderstanding recruitment dynamics informs effective management of sensitive populations (Camp et al. 2020)