Auxin polar transport in Arabidopsis under simulated microgravity conditions — Relevance to growth and development

Activity of auxin polar transport in inflorescence axes of Arabidopsis thaliana grown under simulated microgravity conditions was studied in relation to the growth and development. Seeds were germinated and allowed to grow on an agar medium in test tubes on a horizontal clinostat. Horizontal clinostat rotation substantially reduced the growth of inflorescence axes and the productivity of seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana (ecotypes Landsberg erecta and Columbia), although it little affected seed germination, development of rosette leaves and flowering. The activity of auxin polar transport in inflorescence axes decreased when Arabidopsis plants were grown on a horizontal clinostat from germination stage, being ca. 60% of 1 g control. On the other hand, the auxin polar transport in inflorescence axes of Arabidopsis grown in 1 g conditions was not affected when the segments were exposed to various gravistimuli, including 3-dimensional clinorotation, during transport experiments. Pin-formed mutant of Arabidopsis, having a unique structure of the inflorescence axis with no flower and extremely low levels of the activity of auxin polar transport in inflorescence axes and endogenous auxin, did not continue its vegetative growth under clinostat rotation. These facts suggest that the development of the system of auxin polar transport in Arabidopsis is affected by microgravity, resulting in the inhibition of growth and development, especially during reproductive growth.     

Beagle 2: a proposed exobiology lander for ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission.

The aim of the proposed Beagle 2 small lander for ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission is to search for organic material on and below the surface of Mars and to study the inorganic chemistry and mineralogy of the landing site. The lander will have a total mass of 60kg including entry, descent, and landing system. Experiments will be deployed on the surface using a robotic arm. It will use a mechanical mole and grinder to obtain samples from below the surface, under rocks, and inside rocks. Sample analysis by a mass spectrometer will include isotopic analysis. An optical microscope, an X-ray spectrometer and a Mossbauer spectrometer will conduct in-situ rock studies.     

具有无源控制空腔时正激波/湍流附面层干扰的数值模拟

采用雷诺平均N-S方程和B/L代数湍流模型计算了具有无源控制空腔时正激波/湍流附面层干扰流场。计算与实验结果的比较表明,本文方法可较准确地预测激波结构、激波与附面层干扰区流动基本特征及波后流动分离状态、激波位置、波前马赫数等参数。      

The Solar Isotope Spectrometer for the Advanced Composition Explorer

The Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS), one of nine instruments on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), is designed to provide high- resolution measurements of the isotopic composition of energetic nuclei from He to Zn (Z=2 to 30) over the energy range from ∼10 to ∼100 MeV nucl−1. During large solar events SIS will measure the isotopic abundances of solar energetic particles to determine directly the composition of the solar corona and to study particle acceleration processes. During solar quiet times SIS will measure the isotopes of low-energy cosmic rays from the Galaxy and isotopes of the anomalous cosmic-ray component, which originates in the nearby interstellar medium. SIS has two telescopes composed of silicon solid-state detectors that provide measurements of the nuclear charge, mass, and kinetic energy of incident nuclei. Within each telescope, particle trajectories are measured with a pair of two-dimensional silicon-strip detectors instrumented with custom, very large-scale integrated (VLSI) electronics to provide both position and energy-loss measurements. SIS was especially designed to achieve excellent mass resolution under the extreme, high flux conditions encountered in large solar particle events. It provides a geometry factor of ∼40 cm2 sr, significantly greater than earlier solar particle isotope spectrometers. A microprocessor controls the instrument operation, sorts events into prioritized buffers on the basis of their charge, range, angle of incidence, and quality of trajectory determination, and formats data for readout by the spacecraft. This paper describes the design and operation of SIS and the scientific objectives that the instrument will address. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

加权电压控制多路输出正激变换器的研究

研究了一种经济实用的多路输出DC／DC变换器的输出电压控制方法－加权电压控制，该方法可有效地改善多路输出变换器输出的稳态稳压精度和动态响应性能，对应用加权电压控制的两路输出正激变换器进行直流稳态分析，得出直流稳态等效电路模型和输出电路压数学表达式，分析了加权因子对输出电压的影响，给出了设计加权因子的原则和设计方法，通过样机实验，验证了该方法能够较好地实现多路输出稳压指标。     

Study of physiological effects of weightlessness and artificial gravity in the flight of the biosatellite Cosmos-936.

In the 18.5-day flight of the Soviet biosatellite Cosmos-936 (3-22, August 1977) com-parative investigations of the physiological effects of prolonged weightlessness (20 rats) and artificial gravity of 1 g (10 rats) were carried out. Throughout the flight artificial gravity was generated by means of animal rotation in two centrifuges with a radius of 320mm. Postflight examination of animals and treatment of the flight data were performed by Soviet scientists in collaboration with the specialists from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, France and the U.S.A. During the flight the total motor activity of the weightless rats was higher and their body temperature was lower than those of the centrifuged animals. Postflight examination of the weightless rats showed a greater percentage of errors during maze an increase in water intake and a decrease in diuresis; a fall of the resistance of peripheral red cells; an increase in the conditionally pathogenic microflora in the mouth; a decrease of oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production and energy expenditures; a drop in the static physical endurance; a decline in the capacity to keep balance on the rail; an increase in the latent period of the lifting reflex, etc. The centrifugal animals displayed lesser or no change of the above type. These findings together with the biochemical and morphological data give evidence that during and after flight adaptive processes in the centrifuged rats developed better.     

Communications and radio determination system using twogeostationary satellites. I. System and experiments

We developed two types of hybrid terminals that can provide both satellite communication and position determination services in one system. One terminal uses the single channel per carrier (SCPC) technique and the other uses the spread spectrum (SS) technique. To evaluate the performance of the two systems, we carried out experiments in Japan and in the Pacific Ocean using two geostationary satellites, ETS-V (150°E) and Inmarsat (180°E). The ranging accuracy between the mobile terminals and the base station via the satellites was found to be about 200 m using the SCPC system and about 10 m using the SS system. The measured positioning accuracy was about 1 km in the SCPC system and about 600 m in the SS system when experiments were carried out near Japan. The experimental results show that the positioning errors were mainly caused by the orbital determination errors of the two satellites. Presented here are the configurations and features of the SCPC and SS terminals, the experimental system, and the experimental results     

Near-infrared study of open clusters Teutsch 10 and Teutsch 25

The astrophysical parameters have been estimated for two unstudied open star clusters Teutsch 10 and Teutsch 25 using the Two Micron All Sky Survey ($2\mathit{MASS}$) database. Radius is estimated as 4.5 arcmin for both clusters using radial density profiles. We have estimated proper motion values in both RA and DEC directions as $2.28\pm 0.3$ and $-0.38\pm 0.11$?mas?yr^?1 for Teutsch 10 and $0.48\pm 0.3$ and $3.35\pm 0.16$?mas?yr^?1 for Teutsch 25 using $\mathit{PPMXL}$¹ catalog. By estimating the stellar membership probabilities, we have identified 30 and 28 most likely members for Teutsch 10 and Teutsch 25 respectively. We have estimated the reddening as $E(B-V)=0.96\pm 0.3$?mag for Teutsch 10 and $0.58\pm 0.2$?mag for Teutsch 25, while the corresponding distances are $2.4\pm 0.2$ and $1.9\pm 0.1$?kpc. Ages of $70\pm 10$?Myr for Teutsch 10 and $900\pm 100$?Myr for Teutsch 25 are estimated using the theoretical isochrones of metallicity Z?=?0.019. The mass function slopes are derived as $1.23\pm 0.30$ and $1.09\pm 0.35$ for Teutsch 10 and Teutsch 25 respectively. Estimated mass function slope for both the clusters are close to the Salpeter value ($x=1.35$) within the errors. Estimated values of dynamical relaxation time are found to be less than cluster’s age for these objects. This concludes that both objects are dynamically relaxed. The possible reason for relaxation may be due to dynamical evolution or imprint of star formation or both.     

Fundamental (f) oscillations in a magnetically coupled solar interior-atmosphere system – An analytical approach

Solar fundamental (f) acoustic mode oscillations are investigated analytically in a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. The model consists of three layers in planar geometry, representing the solar interior, the magnetic atmosphere, and a transitional layer sandwiched between them. Since we focus on the fundamental mode here, we assume the plasma is incompressible. A horizontal, canopy-like, magnetic field is introduced to the atmosphere, in which degenerated slow MHD waves can exist. The global (f-mode) oscillations can couple to local atmospheric Alfvén waves, resulting, e.g., in a frequency shift of the oscillations. The dispersion relation of the global oscillation mode is derived, and is solved analytically for the thin-transitional layer approximation and for the weak-field approximation. Analytical formulae are also provided for the frequency shifts due to the presence of a thin transitional layer and a weak atmospheric magnetic field. The analytical results generally indicate that, compared to the fundamental value ($\omega =\sqrt{\mathit{gk}}$), the mode frequency is reduced by the presence of an atmosphere by a few per cent. A thin transitional layer reduces the eigen-frequencies further by about an additional hundred microhertz. Finally, a weak atmospheric magnetic field can slightly, by a few percent, increase the frequency of the eigen-mode. Stronger magnetic fields, however, can increase the f-mode frequency by even up to ten per cent, which cannot be seen in observed data. The presence of a magnetic atmosphere in the three-layer model also introduces non-permitted propagation windows in the frequency spectrum; here, f-mode oscillations cannot exist with certain values of the harmonic degree. The eigen-frequencies can be sensitive to the background physical parameters, such as an atmospheric density scale-height or the rate of the plasma density drop at the photosphere. Such information, if ever observed with high-resolution instrumentation and inverted, could help to gain further insight into solar magnetic structures by means of solar magneto-seismology, and could provide further insight into the role of magnetism in solar oscillations.     

Order out of Randomness: Self-Organization Processes in Astrophysics

Self-organization is a property of dissipative nonlinear processes that are governed by a global driving force and a local positive feedback mechanism, which creates regular geometric and/or temporal patterns, and decreases the entropy locally, in contrast to random processes. Here we investigate for the first time a comprehensive number of (17) self-organization processes that operate in planetary physics, solar physics, stellar physics, galactic physics, and cosmology. Self-organizing systems create spontaneous “order out of randomness”, during the evolution from an initially disordered system to an ordered quasi-stationary system, mostly by quasi-periodic limit-cycle dynamics, but also by harmonic (mechanical or gyromagnetic) resonances. The global driving force can be due to gravity, electromagnetic forces, mechanical forces (e.g., rotation or differential rotation), thermal pressure, or acceleration of nonthermal particles, while the positive feedback mechanism is often an instability, such as the magneto-rotational (Balbus-Hawley) instability, the convective (Rayleigh-Bénard) instability, turbulence, vortex attraction, magnetic reconnection, plasma condensation, or a loss-cone instability. Physical models of astrophysical self-organization processes require hydrodynamic, magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD), plasma, or N-body simulations. Analytical formulations of self-organizing systems generally involve coupled differential equations with limit-cycle solutions of the Lotka-Volterra or Hopf-bifurcation type.