The role of DNA repair on cell killing by charged particles.

It can be noted that it is not simple double strand breaks (dsb) but the non-reparable breaks that are associated with high biological effectiveness in the cell killing effect for high LET radiation. Here, we have examined the effectiveness of fast neutrons and low (initial energy = 12 MeV/u) or high (135 MeV/u) energy charged particles on cell death in 19 mammalian cell lines including radiosensitive mutants. Some of the radiosensitive lines were deficient in DNA dsb repair such as LX830, M10, V3, and L5178Y-S cells and showed lower values of relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for fast neutrons if compared with their parent cell lines. The other lines of human ataxia-telangiectasia fibroblasts, irs 1, irs 2, irs 3 and irs1SF cells, which were also radiosensitive but known as proficient in dsb repair, showed moderated RBEs. Dsb repair deficient mutants showed low RBE values for heavy ions. These experimental findings suggest that the DNA repair system does not play a major role against the attack of high linear energy transfer (LET) radiations. Therefore, we hypothesize that a main cause of cell death induced by high LET radiations is due to non-reparable dsb, which are produced at a higher rate compared to low LET radiations.     

The heliolongitudinal distribution of solar flares associated with solar proton events.

We find that the heliolongitudinal distribution of solar flares associated with earth-observed solar proton events is a function of the particle measurement energy. For solar proton events containing fluxes with energies exceeding 1 GeV, we find a Gaussian distribution about the probable root of the Archimedean spiral favorable propagation path leading from the earth to the sun. This distribution is modified as the detection threshold is lowered. For > 100 MeV solar proton events with fluxes > or = 10 protons (cm2-sec-ster)-1 we find the distribution becomes wider with a secondary peak near the solar central meridian. When the threshold is lowered to 10 MeV the distribution further evolves. For > 10 MeV solar proton events having a flux threshold at 10 protons (cm2-sec-ster)-1 the distribution can be considered to be a composite of two Gaussians. One distribution is centered about the probable root of the Archimedean spiral favorable propagation path leading from the earth to the sun, and the other is centered about the solar central meridian. For large flux solar proton events, those with flux threshold of 1000 (cm2-sec-ster)-1 at energies > 10 MeV, we find the distribution is rather flat for about 40 degrees either side of central meridian.     

Simulation experiments of the effect of space environment on bacteriophage and DNA thin films.

The main goal of PUR experiment (phage and uracil response) is to examine and quantify the effect of specific space conditions on nucleic acid models. To achieve this an improved method was elaborated for the preparation of DNA and bacteriophage thin films. The homogeneity of the films was controlled by UV spectroscopy and microscopy. To provide experimental evidence for the hypothesis that interplanetary transfer of the genetic material is possible, phage T7 and isolated T7 DNA thin films have been exposed to selected space conditions: intense UVC radiation (lambda=254 nm) and high vacuum (10(-4) Pa). The effects of DNA hydration, conformation and packing on UV radiation damage were examined. Characteristic changes in the absorption spectrum, in the electrophoretic pattern of DNA and the decrease of the amount of PCR products have been detected indicating the photodamage of isolated and intraphage DNA.     

AFIT neural network research

A brief summary of research done at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in the area of neural networks is provided. It has been shown that backpropagation, used for feedforward artificial neural networks, is just a degenerate version of an extended Kalman filter, and that networks can do about as well as the optimum statistical classification technique. A method of finding the importance of features for use by a neural network classifier has been determined. Techniques for using neural networks for image segmentation have been developed. In optical pattern recognition, techniques that allow the processing of real FLIR (forward-looking infrared) images with existing binary spatial light modulators have been devised. An optical direction of arrival detector applicable to laser illumination direction determination has been designed and tested; the design is similar to a fly's eye. Coated mirrors for the optical confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer have been designed, specified, fabricated, and installed. Significant progress has been made in the use of neural networks for processing multiple-feature sets for speech recognition     

Design and implementation of near-field, wideband synthetic aperture beamformers

A coarray-based near-field, wideband synthetic aperture beamformer using stepped-frequency signal synthesis and post-data acquisition processing is presented. While coarray techniques offer significant reduction in the number of array elements for a given angular resolution, the hybrid subarray-stepped frequency realization of wideband systems simplifies implementations and offers flexibility in beamforming. Proof of concept is provided using real data collected in an anechoic chamber for several pulse shapes and array weightings.     

Survey of current situation in radiation belt modeling.

The study of Earth's radiation belts is one of the oldest subjects in space physics. Despite the tremendous progress made in the last four decades, we still lack a complete understanding of the radiation belts in terms of their configurations, dynamics, and detailed physical accounts of their sources and sinks. The static nature of early empirical trapped radiation models, for examples, the NASA AP-8 and AE-8 models, renders those models inappropriate for predicting short-term radiation belt behaviors associated with geomagnetic storms and substorms. Due to incomplete data coverage, these models are also inaccurate at low altitudes (e.g., <1000 km) where many robotic and human space flights occur. The availability of radiation data from modern space missions and advancement in physical modeling and data management techniques have now allowed the development of new empirical and physical radiation belt models. In this paper, we will review the status of modern radiation belt modeling.     

Synthetic-aperture radar processing using fast factorized back-projection

Exact synthetic aperture radar (SAR) inversion for a linear aperture may be obtained using fast transform techniques. Alternatively, back-projection integration in time domain can also be used. This technique has the benefit of handling a general aperture geometry. In the past, however, back-projection has seldom been used due to heavy computational burden. We show that the back-projection integral can be recursively partitioned and an effective algorithm constructed based on aperture factorization. By representing images in local polar coordinates it is shown that the number of operations is drastically reduced and can be made to approach that of fast transform algorithms. The algorithm is applied to data from the airborne ultra-wideband CARABAS SAR and shown to give a reduction in processing time of two to three orders of magnitude.     

RPC-MAG The Fluxgate Magnetometer in the ROSETTA Plasma Consortium

The fluxgate magnetometer experiment onboard the ROSETTA spacecraft aims to measure the magnetic field in the interaction region of the solar wind plasma with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It consists of a system of two ultra light (about 28 g each ) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, mounted on the 1.5 m long spacecraft boom. The measurement range of each sensor is ±16384 nT with quantization steps of 31 pT. The magnetometer sensors are operated with a time resolution of up to 0.05 s, corresponding to a bandwidth of 0–10 Hz. This performance of the RPC-MAG sensors allows detailed analyses of magnetic field variations in the cometary environment. RPC-MAG furthermore is designed to study possible remnant magnetic fields of the nucleus, measurements which will be done in close cooperation with the ROSETTA lander magnetometer experiment ROMAP.