Changes in organ perfusion and weight ratios in post-simulated microgravity recovery

Head-down tilt models have been used as ground-based simulations of microgravity. Our previous animal research has demonstrated that there are significant changes in fluid distribution within 2 h after placement in a 45 degrees head-down tilt (45HDT) position and these changes in fluid distribution were still present after 14 days of 45HDT. Consequently, we investigated changes in fluid distribution during recovery from 16 days of 45HDT. Changes in radioactive tracer distribution and organ/body weight ratio were examined in rats randomly assigned to a 45HDT or prone control group. The 45HDT rats were suspended for 16 days and then allowed to recover at the prone position 0, 77, 101, or 125 h post-suspension. Animals were injected with technetium-labeled diethylenetriamine pentaacetate (99mTcDTPA, MW=492 amu, physical half-life of 6.02 h) and then killed 30 min post-injection. Lungs, heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, and brain were harvested, weighed, and measured for radioactive counts. Statistical analyses included two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) that compared 45HDT versus controls at the four experimental time points. The organ weight divided by the body weight ratio for the brain, heart, kidneys and liver in the 45HDT rats was significantly different than the control rats, regardless of time (treatment). There was no difference between the different time points (time). The average 99mTcDTPA count divided by the organ weight ratio values for the heart, liver, and spleen were significantly higher in the 45HDT group than the control group. The average counts for the heart and spleen were significantly higher at 77, 101, and 125 h than at time zero. We conclude that the major organs have different recovery patterns after 45HDT for 16 days in the rat.     

两种自适应检测方案的比较

对两种自适应检测方案，Ｋｅｌｌｙ的广义似然比检验（ＧＬＲＴ）和平均电平自适应检测（ＭＬＡＤ），进行了比较，两种方案检测性能ＰＤ的预测量在输入噪声为时间独立但空间相关的零均值复高斯随机变量以及有两个信号幅度呈端利分布的假设条件下进行的。ＰＤ是作为虚警概率，输放通道数，每个通道的独立采样数以及匹配滤波器输出信号噪声功率比等参量的函数来计算的。本文的分析表明：ＧＬＲＴ比ＭＬＡＤ有更好的检测性能。当使用较     

Brines in seepage channels as eluants for subsurface relict biomolecules on Mars?

Water, vital for life, not only maintains the integrity of structural and metabolic biomolecules, it also transports them in solution or colloidal suspension. Any flow of water through a dormant or fossilized microbial community elutes molecules that are potentially recognizable as biomarkers. We hypothesize that the surface seepage channels emanating from crater walls and cliffs in Mars Orbiter Camera images results from fluvial erosion of the regolith as low-temperature hypersaline brines. We propose that, if such flows passed through extensive subsurface catchments containing buried and fossilized remains of microbial communities from the wet Hesperian period of early Mars (approximately 3.5 Ga ago), they would have eluted and concentrated relict biomolecules and delivered them to the surface. Life-supporting low-temperature hypersaline brines in Antarctic desert habitats provide a terrestrial analog for such a scenario. As in the Antarctic, salts would likely have accumulated in water-filled depressions on Mars by seasonal influx and evaporation. Liquid water in the Antarctic cold desert analogs occurs at -80 degrees C in the interstices of shallow hypersaline soils and at -50 degrees C in salt-saturated ponds. Similarly, hypersaline brines on Mars could have freezing points depressed below -50 degrees C. The presence of hypersaline brines on Mars would have extended the amount of time during which life might have evolved. Phototrophic communities are especially important for the search for life because the distinctive structures and longevity of their pigments make excellent biomarkers. The surface seepage channels are therefore not only of geomorphological significance, but also provide potential repositories for biomolecules that could be accessed by landers.     

用于联合跟踪和识别的高分辨率雷达模型

采用高分辨率雷达（ＨＲＲ）距离剖面图来识别飞机或地面目标是一件相当困难的工作，这在很大程度上是由于目标视线角变化很小而引起目标的距离剖面图的变化却极大。本文中，我们基于似然法提出了采用一系列的ＨＲＲ距离剖面图来完成关于一个目标的联合跟踪和识别问题。在已知目标方位的情况下，场景结构的似然函数是把在目标方位顺序上的动态先验值和距离剖面的似然值结合起来。识别系统根据目标类型参数和观测时目标方位序列完成联     

采用商用技术改进军用雷达

采用商用产品和技术有助于降低成本，降低风险并加快技术成果转化的步伐。然而，在高性能飞机电子设备领域，如果不能深入了解军事环境、规范／要求、以及商用产品满足它们的能力，那么就会限制采用商用技术改进航空电子设备的潜力。为了举例说明如何使航空工业向着这个方面转变，本文评述了Hughes飞机公司所开展的工作。Hughes公司正在用商用规范与技术对原有针对军事用途设计并采用军用规范和技术的合成孔径雷达系统进行了改进，以便降低成本并瞄准非军事市场（包括国外的市场）。令人好笑的是，军方已经把该产品供自己使用，并且该雷达第一次就卖给美国军方。Hughes综合合成孔径雷达（HISAR）是一种低成本、高性能SAR雷达，它具有实时侦察、监视和地球资源测绘的能力。HISAR采用了最初为美国空军开发的称作ASARS－2的先进的SAR技术，以便在日、夜及全天侯条件下，形成接近光学照片质量的图像。最初的ASARS－2采用了常规的高速可编程信号处理器，该处理器由数个机架组成，并且需要大功率和冷却。在七十年代中期正在开发ASARS－2时，商用处理器能实现相同的功能，但其硬件资源和软件复杂性要高一个数量级。随着以有效的高速数据总线为特征的信号处理的迅速发展，使人们能采用可靠的、成本显著降低的商用信号处理器代替原来的硬件。商用技术与产品也有可能用于其它雷达功能领域，并进一步降低成本和物理特性。现在HISAR是几个新的美国国防部计划的基础。本文论述了怎样广泛使用商用技术和规程来满足军事要求。     

Gender differences in organ density in a rat simulated microgravity model

Research investigating the physiological effects of microgravity on the human body has demonstrated a shift of body fluids in actual spaceflight and in simulated Earth-based microgravity models in both males and females, possibly causing many deleterious physiological effects. Twenty-five anatomically normal female (NF) and 20 ovariectomized (OE) Fischer 344 rats were randomly selected to be in an experimental (1 h of 45 degrees head-down tilt, 45HDT) or control (1 h of prone position) group. At the end of the hour experimental period, the density of the brain, lungs, heart, liver, and left and right kidneys were measured using spiral computed tomography (SCT) while the rats remained in their experimental positions. A sub-group of OE rats (N=6) was administered estrogen replacement therapy on a daily basis (5 micrograms/kg body weight, s.c.) for 4 days and then underwent 1 h of 45HDT and SCT analysis at one day, 2 days, and 5 days to determine if estrogen replacement therapy would alter organ densities. Our data demonstrate that 1 h of 45HDT produced significant increases (p<0.05) in the organ densities of the brain, liver, left kidney, and lung of the OE female group compared to their prone controls. However, only the brain density was significantly increased in the NF group. Estrogen replacement therapy caused a significant decrease in brain organ density at the 5 day time point compared to the 24 h time point. We conclude that estrogen plays a role in fluid distribution in a rat 45HDT model.     

Solar particle event dose distributions: parameterization of dose-time profiles

Calculations of total dose and dose equivalent as a function of time since the start of the event are presented for four of the major solar particle events that occurred during the period from August to December 1989. Results are presented for exposures to the skin, ocular lens and bone marrow shielded by a nominal thickness of aluminum shielding, comparable to that provided by a spacesuit. The calculated curves of organ dose and dose equivalent versus time are parameterized using a Weibull functional form for the fitting equation. The fitting parameters are determined using least squares regression techniques. These results provide a useful starting point for the development of methods to predict the cumulative doses and times to reach various dose limits from a limited number of dose measurements early in a solar particle event.     

机载传感器主动航迹与被动航迹的关联

本文叙述了对异类机械传感器产生的航迹的关联算法，分析计算了根据正确和错误关联概率确定的算法的性能，为了得到这个结论，对航迹估值的Ｃｒａｍｅｒ－Ｒａｏ下限进行了计算，给出了两个目标沿着两个平行轨迹飞行的数字样例。     

Why O2 is required by complex life on habitable planets and the concept of planetary "oxygenation time"

Life is constructed from a limited toolkit: the Periodic Table. The reduction of oxygen provides the largest free energy release per electron transfer, except for the reduction of fluorine and chlorine. However, the bonding of O2 ensures that it is sufficiently stable to accumulate in a planetary atmosphere, whereas the more weakly bonded halogen gases are far too reactive ever to achieve significant abundance. Consequently, an atmosphere rich in O2 provides the largest feasible energy source. This universal uniqueness suggests that abundant O2 is necessary for the high-energy demands of complex life anywhere, i.e., for actively mobile organisms of approximately 10(-1)-10(0) m size scale with specialized, differentiated anatomy comparable to advanced metazoans. On Earth, aerobic metabolism provides about an order of magnitude more energy for a given intake of food than anaerobic metabolism. As a result, anaerobes do not grow beyond the complexity of uniseriate filaments of cells because of prohibitively low growth efficiencies in a food chain. The biomass cumulative number density, n, at a particular mass, m, scales as n (> m) proportional to m(-1) for aquatic aerobes, and we show that for anaerobes the predicted scaling is n proportional to m (-1.5), close to a growth-limited threshold. Even with aerobic metabolism, the partial pressure of atmospheric O2 (P(O2)) must exceed approximately 10(3) Pa to allow organisms that rely on O2 diffusion to evolve to a size approximately 10(3) m x P(O2) in the range approximately 10(3)-10(4) Pa is needed to exceed the threshold of approximately 10(2) m size for complex life with circulatory physiology. In terrestrial life, O(2) also facilitates hundreds of metabolic pathways, including those that make specialized structural molecules found only in animals. The time scale to reach P(O(2)) approximately 10(4) Pa, or "oxygenation time," was long on the Earth (approximately 3.9 billion years), within almost a factor of 2 of the Sun's main sequence lifetime. Consequently, we argue that the oxygenation time is likely to be a key rate-limiting step in the evolution of complex life on other habitable planets. The oxygenation time could preclude complex life on Earth-like planets orbiting short-lived stars that end their main sequence lives before planetary oxygenation takes place. Conversely, Earth-like planets orbiting long-lived stars are potentially favorable habitats for complex life.