Effects of the diet on brain function.

The rates of synthesis by brain neurons of the neurotransmitters serotonin, acetylcholine, and the catecholamines depend on the brain levels of the respective precursor molecules. Brain levels of each precursor are influenced by their blood concentration, and for the amino acid precursors, by the blood levels of other amino acids as well. Since diet readily alters blood concentrations of each of these precursors, it thereby also influences the brain formation of their neurotransmitter products.     

Equatorial F-region ionization differences between March and September, 1979

Ionospheric total electron content and the F-region maximum electron density at a number of stations in the equatorial region, during the recent solar activity maximum period 1979 to 1980, show significant differences between the two equinoctial periods. Ionization during the month of March is higher than in September, irrespective of the station location both in northern and southern hemispheres, and in different longitude sectors. The observed pattern is compared with those predicted by different models, in particular with one of the authors which includes processes such as ionization production, loss, electrodynamic drifts, winds and global composition changes involved in the equatorial ionosphere. It is found that a change in the neutral composition is primarily responsible for the observed F-region density differences between March and September.     

Prebiotic synthesis and reactions of nucleosides and nucleotides.

Diiminosuccinonitrile (DISN) has been investigated as a potential prebiotic phosphorylating agent. It is formed readily by the oxidation of diaminomaleonitrile (DAMN), a tetramer of HCN. DISN effects the cyclization of 3'-adenosine monophosphate to adenosine 2',3'-cyclic phosphace in up to 40% yield. The DISN-mediated phosphorylation of uridine to uridine mono-phosphate does not proceed efficiently in aqueous solution. The reaction of DISN and BrCN with uridine-5'-phosphate and uridine results in the formation of 2,2'-anhydronucleotides and 2,2'-anhydronucleosides respectively, and other reaction products resulting from an initial reaction at the 2'- and 3'-hydroxyl groups. The clay mineral catalysis of the cyclization of adenosine-3'-phosphate was investigated using homoionic montmorillonites.     

Planetary radio astronomy from voyager

The Planetary Radio Astronomy instruments on Voyager 1 and 2 provided new, highly detailed measurements of several different kinds of strong, nonthermal radiation generated in the inner magnetospheres and upper ionospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. At Jupiter, an intense decameter-wavelength component (between a few tenths of a MHz and 39.5 MHz) is characterized by complex, highly organized structure in the frequency-time domain and by a strong dependence on the longitude of the observer and, in some cases, of Io. At frequencies below about 1 MHz there exists a (principally) kilometer-wavelength component of emission that is bursty, relatively broadbanded (typically covering 10 to 1000 kHz), and strongly modulated by planetary rotation. The properties of this component are consistent with a source confined to high latitudes on the dayside hemisphere of Jupiter. A second kilometric component is narrow-banded, relatively weak and exhibits a spectral peak near 100 kHz. The narrowband component also occurs periodically but at a repetition rate that is a few percent slower than that corresponding to the planetary rotation rate. This component is thought to originate at a frequency near the electron plasma frequency in the outer part of the Io plasma torus (8 to 10 R_J) and to reflect the small departures from perfect corotation experienced by plasma there.The Voyager instruments also detected intense, low frequency, radio emissions from the Saturn system. The Saturnian kilometric radiation is observed in a relatively narrow frequency band between 3 kHz and 1.2 MHz, is elliptically or circularly polarized, and is strongly modulated in intensity at Saturn's 10.66-hr rotation period. This emission is believed to be emitted in the right-hand extraordinary mode from regions near or in Saturn's dayside, polar, magnetospheric cusps. Variations in intensity at Saturn's rotation period may correspond to the rotation of a localized magnetic anomaly into the vicinity of the ionospheric footprint of the polar cusp. Variations in activity on time scales of a few days and longer seem to indicate that both the solar wind and the satellite Dione can also influence the generation of the radio emission.     

Theory and experimental results on gravitational effects on monocellular algae.

The orientation of a body which has an anisotropic distribution of mass and which is suspended in water is biased by gravitational torque, so that the center of gravity lies below the center of buoyancy. Many species of unicellular swimming algae are gravitationally oriented in this manner. Their axis of propulsion is essentially fixed within their bodies, so that when the cells swim, they swim upwards. Gravitaxis is an exotaxis, which requires no sensory processing. Nevertheless, gravity affects the lives of these cells both individually and collectively. For single cells, gravity intervenes in the execution and mechanism of sense-dependent taxes, such as phototaxis, it provides for fail-safe locomotion toward the upper interface of their habitat, the source of light and air, and it may cause up-accumulation. Populations of single cells, swimming in the presence of gravity, are coupled through fluid-mechanical interactions which cause spatial and temporal patterns of fluid convection and cell concentration. These patterns modify the cell's environmental interactions, by facilitating downward migrations of cell populations, by mixing the embedding fluid and its contents, and by providing a collective mechanism for controlling light intensity at the individual cell level. Summarizing, gravity modulates the interaction of algal cells with each other and with their environment.     

Measurements of the earth radiation budget from satellites during the first garp global experiment

Two special measurements of the energy exchange between earth and space were made in connection with the FGGE. A global monitoring program using wide-field-of-view and scanner detectors from NASA's NIMBUS-7 satellite successfully returned measurements during the entire FGGE. This experiment system also used a black cavity detector to measure the total energy output of the sun to very high precision. A second set of high frequency time and space estimates of the radiation budget were determined from selected geostationary satellite data. Preliminary results from both radiation budget data sets and the solar “constant” measurements will be presented.     

Some contributions of touch, pressure and kinesthesis to human spatial orientation and oculomotor control.

Human spatial orientation and oculomotor control are under multimodal influence. It is not possible in the normal animal to stimulate differentially the vestibular receptors without activating other receptor systems whose activity may have a profound influence on postural control and experienced orientation. Many patterns of behavior and response that have been attributed solely to vestibular function are actually dependent wholly or in part on touch, kinesthetic, and proprioceptive stimulation.     

Photochemical initiation of gaseous detonations

Direct initiation of detonations in gaseous mixtures of C₂H₂-O₂, H₂-O₂ and H₂-Cl₂ in the pressure range of 10–150 torr using flash photolysis was studied. Similar to blast initiation using a concentrated powerful energy source, it was found that for photochemical initiation, there exists a certain threshold of flash intensity and energy for each mixture at any given initial pressure and composition below which a deflagration is formed. At the critical threshold, however, a fully developed detonation is rapidly formed in the immediate vicinity of the window of incident UV radiation. However, at super critical flash energies, the amplitude of the detonation formed decreases and combustion of the entire irradiated volume approaches a constant volume explosion. It was found that photo-chemical initiation requires both a certain minimum peak value of the free radical concentration generated by the photo-dissociation as well as an appropriate gradient of this free radical distribution. The minimum peak radical concentration permits rapid reaction rates for the generation of strong pressure waves, while the gradient is necessary for the amplification of the shock waves to a detonation. If the gradient is absent and the free radicals are uniformly distributed in the mixture, then the entire volume simply explodes as in a constant volume process. The present study reveals that the mechanism of photochemical initiation is one of proper temporal synchronization of the chemical energy release to the shock wave as it propagates through the mixture. In analogy to the LASER, the term SWACER is introduced to represent this mechanism of Shock Wave Amplication by Coherent Energy Release. There are strong indications that this SWACER mechanism is universal and plays the main role in the formation of detonations whenever a powerful concentrated external source is not used to generate a strong shock wave in the explosive.     

The team ROC curve in a binary hypothesis testing environment

We consider the distributed detection problem, in which a set of decision makers (DMs) receive observations of the environment and transmit finite-valued messages to other DMs according to prespecified communication protocols. A designated primary DM makes the find decision on one out of two alternative hypotheses. All DMs make decisions, in order to maximize a measure of organizational performance. We discuss three different types of decision rules (deterministic, independent randomization, and dependent randomization), and their implications on the organizational performance. Each DM is described by its individual receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which is concave. We determine that concavity is not guaranteed for the case of the ROC curve of a team of DMs, even if the decision rules are perfectly continuous and if the individual ROC curves are strictly concave and smooth unless dependent randomization is allowed     

Exact Detection Performance for Broadband Correlators

The detection of a broadband plane wave in an isotropic noise field is considered. The detection statistic used is the cross correlation of the sampled output from two sensors where the sampling rate equals the Nyquist rate and the time delay is an integer multiple of the sampling period. By restricting the number of points in the cross correlation to be even, the detection and false-alarm probbilities are obtained in closed form. Numerical results are presented for several special cases.