Continued investigation of the light element geochemistry of Tagish Lake

We have determined the abundance and isotopic composition of two separate carbonate generations within Tagish Lake. Nitrogen isotope analysis of the chondrite shows it to be organic-rich, with d15N values higher than in CI and CM chondrites

The Fountain Hills meteorite: A new CBa chondrite from Arizona

We describe a new member of the CR chondrite clan and compare it to other members of this group

Generalized Jacobi identities and ball-box theorem for horizontally regular vector fields

We consider a family of vector fields and we assume a horizontal regularity on their derivatives. We discuss the notion of commutator showing that different definitions agree. We apply our results to the proof of a ball-box theorem and Poincar\'e inequality for nonsmooth H\"ormander vector fields.Comment: arXiv admin note: material from arXiv:1106.2410v1, now three separate articles arXiv:1106.2410v2, arXiv:1201.5228, arXiv:1201.520

Characterization of the water diffusion in GEM foil material

Systematic studies on the GEM foil material are performed to measure the moisture diffusion rate and saturation level.These studies are important because the presence of this compound inside the detector’s foil can possibly change its mechanical and electrical properties,and in such a way,the detector performance can be affected.To understand this phenomenon,a model is developed with COMSOL Multiphysicsv.4.3 which described the adsorption and diffusion within the geometry of GEM foil,the concentration profiles and the time required to saturate the foil.The COMSOL model is verified by experimental observations on a GEM foil sample.This note will describe the model and its experimental verification results

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Nitrogen and argon release profiles in Luna 16 and Luna 24 regolith samples: The effects of regolith reworking

Fines, microbreccias and agglutinates from the Luna 16 mature regolith 1635 and fines from the immature/submature Luna-24 regolith have been analysed for N and argon isotopes in order to understand the origin of isotopically distinct N released at different temperatures. All high-resolution runs reveal a similarity in the release of 36Ar, 40Ar and N over a wide temperature interval. The similarity in the 40Ar and 36Ar releases and the near coincidence in the 1635 agglutinates implies that the implanted species were redistributed and homogenised during regolith processing such that, regardless of the huge difference in ion implantation energy between solar 36Ar and non-solar 40Ar, their present distribution and their release temperatures are now essentially equal. A small amount of 40Ar released in the lower temperature steps with elevated 40Ar/36Ar is considered to be trapped after reworking. While such mixing and homogenisation may also be expected for N components of different origins, to date all known stepped runs regularly demonstrate a reproducible variation in 15N, suggesting no homogenisation. We consider regolith N to be a mixture of several components trapped at different times, and some nitrogen that was not involved in the reworking. Relatively heavy N released around 500 °C appears to be the most pure form of the component trapped after reworking, probably from accreted meteoritic matter. Middle temperature isotopically lighter N appears to be a mixture of solar and non-solar N largely homogenised, and therefore solar N can not be seen in its pure form. Bulk 15N as well as formally deconvoluted 15N thermal profiles imply that the non-solar N has a variable 15N value. Several non-solar N sources are considered with their input resulting in increasing regolith 15N with time. Because N from meteorites and IDPs appear to be dominant, a mechanism is required to reduce the C/N ratio typical of meteoritic matter to that approaching the low value observed in the lunar regolith. Preferential loss of methane appears to be a viable explanation, following generation either by proton sputtering or in reducing vapour plumes