Potential fossil endoliths in vesicular pillow basalt, Coral Patch Seamount, eastern North Atlantic Ocean

The chilled rinds of pillow basalt from the Ampère-Coral Patch Seamounts in the eastern North Atlantic were studied as a potential habitat of microbial life. A variety of putative biogenic structures, which include filamentous and spherical microfossil-like structures, were detected in K-phillipsite-filled amygdules within the chilled rinds. The filamentous structures (～2.5 μm in diameter) occur as K-phillipsite tubules surrounded by an Fe-oxyhydroxide (lepidocrocite) rich membranous structure, whereas the spherical structures (from 4 to 2 μm in diameter) are associated with Ti oxide (anatase) and carbonaceous matter. Several lines of evidence indicate that the microfossil-like structures in the pillow basalt are the fossilized remains of microorganisms. Possible biosignatures include the carbonaceous nature of the spherical structures, their size distributions and morphology, the presence and distribution of native fluorescence, mineralogical and chemical composition, and environmental context. When taken together, the suite of possible biosignatures supports the hypothesis that the fossil-like structures are of biological origin. The vesicular microhabitat of the rock matrix is likely to have hosted a cryptoendolithic microbial community. This study documents a variety of evidence for past microbial life in a hitherto poorly investigated and underestimated microenvironment, as represented by the amygdules in the chilled pillow basalt rinds. This kind of endolithic volcanic habitat would have been common on the early rocky planets in our Solar System, such as Earth and Mars. This study provides a framework for evaluating traces of past life in vesicular pillow basalts, regardless of whether they occur on early Earth or Mars.     

Optical,ultraviolet, and infrared observations of isolated neutron stars

Forty years passed since the optical identification of the first isolated neutron star (INS), the Crab pulsar. 25 INSs have been now identified in the optical (O), near-ultraviolet (nUV), or near-infrared (nIR), hereafter UVOIR, including rotation-powered pulsars (RPPs), magnetars, and X-ray-dim INSs (XDINSs), while deep investigations have been carried out for compact central objects (CCOs), Rotating RAdio transients (RRATs), and high-magnetic field radio pulsars (HBRPs). In this review I describe the status of UVOIR observations of INSs, their emission properties, and I present the results from recent observations.     

Ionospheric response of equatorial and low latitude F-region during the intense geomagnetic storm on 24–25 August 2005

In this investigation, we present and discuss the response of the ionospheric F-region in the South American and East Asian sectors during an intense geomagnetic storm in August 2005. The geomagnetic storm studied reached a minimum Dst of −216 nT at 12:00 UT on 24 August. In this work ionospheric sounding data obtained of 24, 25, and 26 August 2005 at Palmas (PAL; 10.2° S, 48.2° W; dip latitude 6.6° S), São José dos Campos (SJC, 23.2° S, 45.9° W; dip latitude 17.6° S), Brazil, Ho Chi Minh City, (HCM; 10.5° N, 106.3° E; dip latitude 2.9° N), Vietnam, Okinawa (OKI; 26.3° N, 127.8° E; dip latitude 21.2° N), Japan, are presented. Also, the GPS observations obtained at different stations in the equatorial and low-latitude regions in the Brazilian sector are presented. On the night of 24–25 August 2005, the h′F variations show traveling ionospheric disturbances associated with Joule heating in the auroral zone from SJC to PAL. The foF2 variations show a positive storm phase on the night of 24–25 August at PAL and SJC during the recovery phase. Also, the GPS-VTEC observations at several stations in the Brazilian sector show a fairly similar positive storm phase on 24 August. During the fast decrease of Dst (between 10:00 and 11:00 UT) on 24 August, there is a prompt penetration of electric field of magnetospheric origin that result in abrupt increase (∼12:00 UT) in foF2 at PAL, SJC (Brazil) and OKI (Japan) and in VTEC at IMPZ, BOMJ, PARA and SMAR (Brazil). OKI showed strong oscillations of the F-region on the night 24 August resulted to the propagation of traveling atmospheric disturbances (TADs) by Joule heating in the auroral region. These effects result a strong positive observed at OKI station. During the daytime on 25 August, in the recovery phase, the foF2 observations showed positive ionospheric storm at HCM station. Some differences in the latitudinal response of the F-region is also observed in the South American and East Asian sectors.     

Fixed membrane wings for micro air vehicles: Experimental characterization,numerical modeling,and tailoring

Fixed wing micro air vehicles (wingspan between 10 and 15 cm) are aerodynamically challenging due to the low Reynolds number regime (10⁴–10⁵) they operate in. The low aspect ratio wings (typically used to maximize area under a size constraint) promote strong tip vortices, and are susceptible to rolling instabilities. Wind gusts can be of the same order of magnitude as the flight speed (10–15 m/s). Standard control surfaces on an empennage must be eliminated for size considerations and drag reduction, and the range of stable center of gravity locations is only a few millimeters long. Membrane aeroelasticity has been identified as a tenable method to alleviate these issues: flexible wing structures with geometric twist (adaptive washout for gust rejection, delayed stall) and aerodynamic twist (adaptive inflation for high lift, larger stability margins) are both considered here. Recent investigations in static aeroelastic characterization, including flight loads, wing deformation, flow structures, aeroelastic-tailoring studies through laminate orientation, as well as unconventional techniques based on membrane pre-tension, are reviewed. Multi-objective optimization aimed at improving lift, drag, and pitching moment considerations is also discussed.     

Stochastic modelling considering ionospheric scintillation effects on GNSS relative and point positioning

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), in particular the Global Positioning System (GPS), have been widely used for high accuracy geodetic positioning. The Least Squares functional models related to the GNSS observables have been more extensively studied than the corresponding stochastic models, given that the development of the latter is significantly more complex. As a result, a simplified stochastic model is often used in GNSS positioning, which assumes that all the GNSS observables are statistically independent and of the same quality, i.e. a similar variance is assigned indiscriminately to all of the measurements. However, the definition of the stochastic model may be approached from a more detailed perspective, considering specific effects affecting each observable individually, as for example the effects of ionospheric scintillation. These effects relate to phase and amplitude fluctuations in the satellites signals that occur due to diffraction on electron density irregularities in the ionosphere and are particularly relevant at equatorial and high latitude regions, especially during periods of high solar activity. As a consequence, degraded measurement quality and poorer positioning accuracy may result.     

Ground and satellite-based observations of ionospheric plasma bubbles and blobs at 5.65° latitude in the Brazilian sector

This investigation uses simultaneous observations from all-sky imager system and an ionosonde collocated at Araguatins (5.65° S, 48.07° W and dip-latitude of 4.17° S), a near-equatorial region in Brazil. These simultaneous observations were used to investigate the occurrence of plasma bubbles and blobs in the field of the imaging system and their association with atypical range Spread-F signature in ionograms. Also, in-situ observation of plasma density from Swarm satellites were used to support the ground-based observations. Using a few cases, a methodology will be established to identify in the plasma blobs (atypical ESF) in the ionograms when there is the simultaneous observation of plasma bubbles and blobs in the field of view of the ionosonde. For this purpose, simultaneous sequence of OI 630.0 nm nightglow images and ionograms are presented for different case studies; 1. when there is the absence of a plasma bubble or blob, 2. when there is only the occurrence of plasma bubbles and 3. when there is the occurrence of plasma bubbles and blobs, in order to compare traces in the ionogram in all these case studies. With these we can cover all kinds of signatures in the ionograms corresponding to no irregularities, plasma bubbles only and plasma bubbles-blobs. These OI 630.0 nm nightglow and ionograms recorded simultaneously make it possible to establish a novel methodology to recognize in ionograms cases when there is the occurrence of Spread-F signature associated with bubble-blob in the FOV of the ionosonde.     

Early morning enhancement in ionospheric electron density during intense magnetic storms

This study reports on ionospheric disturbances that occurred in the early morning hours in the South American–Atlantic sector during a few intense/super storm events. The events were observed at latitudes close to the southern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) as an unusual intensification of the F region electron density peak at local times when the EIA is not usually developed. All the events were observed at pre dawn-morning hours, under conditions of northward interplanetary geomagnetic field. Large scale traveling ionospheric disturbances that are launched during highly disturbed conditions and/or equatorward surges in the thermospheric meridional winds seem to be the most probable causes of the observed disturbances.     

Framing holes within a loop hierarchy

We investigate the relation between nontrivial spatial concepts such as holes and string loops from a qualitative spatial reasoning perspective. In particular, we concentrate on a family of puzzles dealing with this kind of objects and explain how a loop formed in a string shows a similar behavior to a hole in an object, at least regarding the qualitative constraints it imposes on the solution of the puzzle. Unlike regular holes, however, we describe how string loops can be dynamically created and destroyed depending on the actions on the string. Furthermore, under a Knowledge Representation point of view, we provide a formalization that allows the different puzzle states to be described in terms of string crossings and loops, together with the actions that can be executed for a state transition and the complex effects they cause on the state representation. This implies the consideration of a formal representation of the side effects of actions that create or destroy string loops and the soundness of this representation with respect to the more general representation of string states in knot theory.     

The Perception and Content of Cast Shadows: An Interdisciplinary Review

Abstract

Recently, psychologists have turned their attention to the study of cast shadows and demonstrated that the human perceptual system values information from shadows very highly in the perception of spatial qualities, sometimes to the detriment of other cues. However with some notable and recent exceptions, computer vision systems treat cast shadows not as signal but as noise. This paper provides a concise yet comprehensive review of the literature on cast shadow perception from across the cognitive sciences, including the theoretical information available, the perception of shadows in human and machine vision, and the ways in which shadows can be used.     

A high order method for orbital conjunctions analysis: Sensitivity to initial uncertainties

A high order method to quickly assess the effect that uncertainties produce on orbital conjunctions through a numerical high-fidelity propagator is presented. In particular, the dependency of time and distance of closest approach to initial uncertainties on position and velocity of both objects involved in a conjunction is studied. The approach relies on a numerical integration based on differential algebraic techniques and a high-order algorithm that expands the time and distance of closest approach in Taylor series with respect to relevant uncertainties. The modeled perturbations are atmospheric drag, using NRLMSISE-00 air density model, solar radiation pressure with shadow, third body perturbation using JPL’s DE405 ephemeris, and EGM2008 gravity model. The polynomial approximation of the final position is used as an input to compute analytically the expansion of time and distance of closest approach. As a result, the analysis of a close encounter can be performed through fast, multiple evaluations of Taylor polynomials. Test cases with objects ranging from LEO to GEO regimes are considered to assess the performances and the accuracy of the proposed method.