Effect of bacterial population density on germination wheat seeds and dynamics of simple artificial ecosystems.

Effect of the size of rhizospheric bacterial populations on germination of seeds and development of simple terrestrial "wheat plants--rhizospheric microorganisms--artificial soil" and "wheat plants-artificial soil" systems has been studied. Experiments demonstrated that within specify ranges in the inoculate, the rhizospheric bacteria are capable of increasing the yield of germinated seeds and stimulate the growth of plantlets. Germination of seeds inoculated with bacteria was either stimulated, or inhibited or remained at control levels depending on the amount of bacteria. Plant biomass growth and total photoassimilation has been found to depend on the amount of bacteria on the plant roots: the higher the amount of bacteria on plant roots, the smaller is the biomass of plants but the total photoassimilation is, higher. Thus, depending on the amount of bacteria on the roots of plants the system either increases the biomass of plants or increases the total photoassimilation, i.e. "pumps" carbon through itself involving bacteria. Grant numbers: N99-04-96017, N15.     

Location and sampling of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits in martian impact craters

Do large craters on Mars represent sites that contain aqueous and hydrothermal deposits that provide clues to astrobiological processes? Are these materials available for sampling in large craters? Several lines of evidence strongly support the exploration of large impact craters to study deposits important for astrobiology. The great depth of impact craters, up to several kilometers relative to the surrounding terrain, can allow the breaching of local aquifers, providing a source of water for lakes and hydrothermal systems. Craters can also be filled with water from outflow channels and valley networks to form large lakes with accompanying sedimentation. Impact melt and uplifted basement heat sources in craters > 50 km in diameter should be sufficient to drive substantial hydrothermal activity and keep crater lakes from freezing for thousands of years, even under cold climatic conditions. Fluid flow in hydrothermal systems is focused at the edges of large planar impact melt sheets, suggesting that the edge of the melt sheets will have experienced substantial hydrothermal alteration and mineral deposition. Hydrothermal deposits, fine-grained lacustrine sediments, and playa evaporite deposits may preserve evidence for biogeochemical processes that occurred in the aquifers and craters. Therefore, large craters may represent giant Petri dishes for culturing preexisting life on Mars and promoting biogeochemical processes. Landing sites must be identified in craters where access to the buried lacustrine sediments and impact melt deposits is provided by processes such as erosion from outflow channels, faulting, aeolian erosion, or excavation by later superimposed cratering events. Very recent gully formation and small impacts within craters may allow surface sampling of organic materials exposed only recently to the harsh oxidizing surface environment.     

Effect of volatile metabolites of dill, radish and garlic on growth of bacteria

In a model experiment plants were grown in sealed chambers on expanded clay aggregate under the luminance of 150 W/m2 PAR and the temperature of 24 degrees C. Seven bacterial strains under investigation, replicated on nutrient medium surface in Petri dishes, were grown in the atmosphere of cultivated plants. Microbial response was evaluated by the difference between colony size in experiment and in control. In control, bacteria grew in the atmosphere of clean air. To study the effects of volatile metabolites of various plant on microbial growth, the experimental data were compared with the background values defined for each individual experiment. Expanded clay aggregate, luminance, temperature, and sealed chamber (without plants) for the background were the same. Volatile metabolites from 28-days old radish plants have been reliably established to have no effect on the growth of microbes under investigation. Metabolites of 30-days old dill and 50-days old garlic have been established to have reliable bacteriostatic effect on the growth of three bacterial strains. Dill and garlic have been found to have different range of effects of volatile substances on bacterial growth. Volatile metabolites of dill and garlic differed in their effect on the sensitivity spectrum of bacteria. An attempt has been made to describe the obtained data mathematically.     

Simplified Optimum Modulation Indices

The design of a narrowband, phase-modulated, multisubcarrier, phase-coherent, space-communication system requires that the subcarrier modulation indices be kept within close tolerance limits. This need arises since the modulation indices directly affect the division of power among the carrier and subcarriers. If the system is not designed in an optimum manner to handle large tolerance variation, the system performance may degrade sharply in an adverse environment. A universal graphical technique?modulation loss contours?is developed as a design tool for the ?optimum? selection of modulation indices. The technique is novel in that it yields solutions directly from the universal curves and does not require the drawing of additional curves. Two criteria of optimization are considered, simultaneous thresholding and minimal sensitivity. The minimally sensitive case is considered as weighted simultaneous thresholding and is solved by the aid of a graphical algorithm. The technique is applicable to k subcarriers (sinusoidal and/or square wave), considering three subcarriers at a time-two subcarriers as direct variables and the third as a parameter?all other subcarriers remaining constant. Previous techniques required trial and error methods, drawing of curves, or computerized search techniques to arrive at the proper modulation indices and maximum tolerance bands. This method allows a quick solution to the tolerance problem and optimum selection of modulation indices, facilitating the design and/or analysis of narrowband PM systems.     

Biological studies of martian soil analogues

Results of the study of the influence of Martian soil analogues, both as described by American scientists and as prepared by us, and of hydrogen peroxide on the viability of microorganisms are presented. The experiments were carried out using mixtures of soil analogues with desert soil and black earth (chernozem) samples, and pure cultures of microorganism. Microorganisms capable of withstanding a concentration of hydrogen peroxide in the medium as high as 1.5–2.0% were isolated. None of the 40 strains of microorganisms studied, all belonging to different systematic and physiological groups, exhibited growth inhibition on solid media in the presence of Martian soil analogues. In view of the fact that Martian soil cannot contain microorganisms in great quantities, we suggest using electroadsorption for their concentration, to make detection reliable. A device was designed for this purpose, using the principle of electroadsorption on a polarisable carrier (sterile cotton wool or cheesecloth). The concentrated suspension of microorganisms thus obtained was then characterized by various physicochemical methods.     

Experiments with injection of powerful plasma jet into the ionosphere

This paper describes two rocket experiments “Aelita” with high power lithium plasma injection. The results of onboard magnetometer, massspectrometer, photometer, plasma, corpuscular and ground radar measurements are given. Dynamics and structure of plasma formation are discussed.     

An Analysis of Helicopter Rotor Modulation Interference

In satellite-to-helicopter communications, interference exists on the incoming signal when the receiving antenna is located below the rotor blades. A bound is established for the performance of a coherent fixed-tone ranging system operating at L band in this interference environment. The scalar diffracted field beneath the rotating blades, at L band and above, is found to satisfy the criterion of Fresnel diffraction, and is computed using the techniques of Fourier optics. The diffracted field is expressed in terms of a narrow-band signal. The amplitude and phase components are calculated from a Fourier Series expansion using the FFT algorithm. The significant harmonics of the phase component of the interference combine with the baseband of the narrow-band, phase-modulated ranging signal. This results in CW interference, and in rearrangement of the first-order, sideband, ranging-tone channel powers. The degradation in ranging accuracy is evaluated by computing the signal-to-interference (SIR) ratio for a set of ranging tones. The post-detection (SIR)PD at the output of the correlator is shown to be a function of the amplitude of the phase harmonics of the interference, the relative difference between the ranging tone and interference center frequencies (a function of rotor speed), the rangetone modulation indices, and the post-detection filter noise bandwidth.     

Degradation of Probability of Error Due to IF Filtering

The probability of error P(e) is computed in a binary communication system with a single-pole IF filter. The effect of time-bandwidth product foT and IF frequency to band width ratio f1/Ifo on P(e) is shown. The sampling time is optimized and the effect of nonoptimal sampling time on P(e) is calculated.     

Two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics calculations of the formation of O-B associations in dense molecular clouds

Two-dimensional calculations of ionization-shockwave propagation into a curved molecular cloud are presented. Density enhancement occurs due to the combined effects of cloud curvature and radiation flow. The star formation process is expected to be enhanced near the edges of irregularly shaped molecular clouds.Authors listed alphabetically