Microbial stowaways: inimitable survivors or hopeless pioneers?

Abstract The resiliency of prokaryotic life has provided colonization across the globe and in the recesses of Earth's most extreme environments. Horizontal gene transfer provides access to a global bank of genetic resources that creates diversity and allows real-time adaptive potential to the clonal prokaryotic world. We assess the likelihood that this Earth-based strategy could provide survival and adaptive potential, in the case of microbial stowaways off Earth. Key Words: Bacillus-Horizontal gene transfer-Bacteria-Earth Mars-Evolution. Astrobiology 12, 710-715.     

无人机飞行控制系统的自抗扰姿态稳定控制

将自抗扰控制应用于无人机飞行控制系统。论述自抗扰控制的方法原理,并运用该技术设计控制律。首先利用跟踪微分器安排过渡过程,以达到快速、准确跟踪给定信号的目的。然后通过扩张状态观测器实时估计出系统的不确定干扰,并以反馈量的形式引入控制输入,从而起到实时补偿系统扰动的作用,实现姿态稳定控制。数值仿真结果表明,该方法抗干扰能力强,具有控制品质好、精度高、算法简单等特点。     

径向导叶内流动分离特性的试验研究和控制

采用接触式探针和粒子图象测速技术(PIV)对导叶式离心泵径向导叶内流场的流动特性进行了研究。基于圆柱形微型三孔探针测试结果对5种流量下导叶的压力恢复能力进行了评估,测孔位置覆盖了导叶进出口截面和主线截面。压力恢复系数的理论值和试验值表明当流量大于导叶设计流量时导叶内产生了较大的静压损失。2C/2D PIV 可视化试验的研究结果表明大流量下导叶叶片压力面发生了流动分离。设计了不同参数组合的涡流发生器来对流动分离现象进行控制,试验研究了6种方案对模型泵大流量工况下性能的影响,获得一组最佳方案,并分析了采用该方案后导叶内的流动特性。     

超声速逆向喷流的减阻与降热

利用流动控制技术改变流场结构的方法,对逆向冷喷流将激波推离物体表面以达到减阻减热的效果,进行了数值模拟计算。通过计算给出了钝头体在超声速流场中有无逆向喷流的压力场和温度场的比较,结果表明,逆向喷流对钝头体表面的减阻和减热起到了明显的作用。     

大攻角侧向喷流流场特性及喷流干扰效应

采用HLLC近似黎曼解格式求解N-S方程,对大攻角条件下超音速尖拱细长旋成体导弹的单侧向喷流干扰流场进行了数值模拟.并对喷流流场压力分布、喷口附近流动及流场旋涡结构进行了研究,分析了大攻角对细长旋成体侧向喷流干扰压力分布及干扰因子的影响.研究结果表明,HLLC格式计算复杂流场具有较好的数值稳定性;侧向喷流与来流的干扰总...     

Preservation of martian organic and environmental records: final report of the Mars biosignature working group

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has an instrument package capable of making measurements of past and present environmental conditions. The data generated may tell us if Mars is, or ever was, able to support life. However, the knowledge of Mars' past history and the geological processes most likely to preserve a record of that history remain sparse and, in some instances, ambiguous. Physical, chemical, and geological processes relevant to biosignature preservation on Earth, especially under conditions early in its history when microbial life predominated, are also imperfectly known. Here, we present the report of a working group chartered by the Co-Chairs of NASA's MSL Project Science Group, John P. Grotzinger and Michael A. Meyer, to review and evaluate potential for biosignature formation and preservation on Mars. Orbital images confirm that layered rocks achieved kilometer-scale thicknesses in some regions of ancient Mars. Clearly, interplays of sedimentation and erosional processes govern present-day exposures, and our understanding of these processes is incomplete. MSL can document and evaluate patterns of stratigraphic development as well as the sources of layered materials and their subsequent diagenesis. It can also document other potential biosignature repositories such as hydrothermal environments. These capabilities offer an unprecedented opportunity to decipher key aspects of the environmental evolution of Mars' early surface and aspects of the diagenetic processes that have operated since that time. Considering the MSL instrument payload package, we identified the following classes of biosignatures as within the MSL detection window: organism morphologies (cells, body fossils, casts), biofabrics (including microbial mats), diagnostic organic molecules, isotopic signatures, evidence of biomineralization and bioalteration, spatial patterns in chemistry, and biogenic gases. Of these, biogenic organic molecules and biogenic atmospheric gases are considered the most definitive and most readily detectable by MSL.     

Thyrotropin receptor and membrane interactions in FRTL-5 thyroid cell strain in microgravity

The aim of this work was to analyze the possible alteration of thyrotropin (TSH) receptors in microgravity, which could explain the absence of thyroid cell proliferation in the space environment. Several forms of the TSH receptor are localized on the plasma membrane associated with caveolae and lipid rafts. The TSH regulates the fluidity of the cell membrane and the presence of its receptors in microdomains that are rich in sphingomyelin and cholesterol. TSH also stimulates cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) accumulation and cell proliferation. Reported here are the results of an experiment in which the FRTL-5 thyroid cell line was exposed to microgravity during the Texus-44 mission (launched February 7, 2008, from Kiruna, Sweden). When the parabolic flight brought the sounding rocket to an altitude of 264?km, the culture media were injected with or without TSH in the different samples, and weightlessness prevailed on board for 6 minutes and 19 seconds. Control experiments were performed, in parallel, in an onboard 1g centrifuge and on the ground in Kiruna laboratory. Cell morphology and function were analyzed. Results show that in microgravity conditions the cells do not respond to TSH treatment and present an irregular shape with condensed chromatin, a modification of the cell membrane with shedding of the TSH receptor in the culture medium, and an increase of sphingomyelin-synthase and Bax proteins. It is possible that real microgravity induces a rearrangement of specific sections of the cell membrane, which act as platforms for molecular receptors, thus influencing thyroid cell function in astronauts during space missions.     

Preservation of microbial lipids in geothermal sinters

Lipid biomarkers are widely used to study the earliest life on Earth and have been invoked as potential astrobiological markers, but few studies have assessed their survival and persistence in geothermal settings. Here, we investigate lipid preservation in active and inactive geothermal silica sinters, with ages of up to 900 years, from Champagne Pool, Waiotapu, New Zealand. Analyses revealed a wide range of bacterial biomarkers, including free and bound fatty acids, 1,2-di-O-alkylglycerols (diethers), and various hopanoids. Dominant archaeal lipids include archaeol and glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs). The predominance of generally similar biomarker groups in all sinters suggests a stable microbial community throughout Champagne Pool's history and indicates that incorporated lipids can be well preserved. Moreover, subtle differences in lipid distributions suggest that past changes in environmental conditions can be elucidated. In this case, higher archaeol abundances relative to the bacterial diethers, a greater proportion of cyclic GDGTs, the high average chain length of the bacterial diethers, and greater concentrations of hopanoic acids in the older sinters all suggest hotter conditions at Champagne Pool in the past.     

民机预先研究的思考和认识

为贯彻执行公司领导有关推进自主创新和加强预先研究的精神,概括了有关民机预先研究的粗浅思考和认识,为摸清民机技术家底,梳理民机关键技术,编制预研发展规划,加强民机预先研究,实现民机研发体系,在此起到抛砖引玉之功效。     

DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF MULTIPHASE FLOWS

INTRODUCTIONMultiphase and multifluid flows are commonin many natural and technologically importantprocesses. Rain,spray combustion,spray paint-ing,and boiling heat transfer are just a few ex-amples.While it is the overall,integral charac-teristics of such flows that are of most interest,the global behavior is determined to a large de-gree by the evolution of the smallestscales in theflow.The combustion of sprays,for example,depends on the size and the number density ofthe drops.Generally…