Biologically produced volatile compounds: N2O emissions from soils

Tropospheric nitrous concentration has increased by 0.2 0.4% per year over the period 1975 to 1982, amounting to net addition to the atmosphere of 2.8 - 5.6 Tg N2O-N per year. This perturbation, if continued into the future, will affect stratospheric chemical cycles, and the thermal balance of the Earth. In turn it will have direct and indirect global effects on the biosphere. Though the budget and cycles of N2O on Earth are not yet fully resolved, accumulating information and recent modelling efforts permit a more complete evaluation and better definition of gaps in our knowledge

The soils of Mars

A mineralogical model for the Mars fine soil that includes as major components smectite clays absorbed and coated with amorphous iron oxyhydroxides and perhaps mixed with small amounts of better-crystalized iron oxides as separate phases is proposed. Also present as accessory minerals are sulfate minerals such as kieserite (MgSO4.H2O) and/or anhydrite (CaSO4), rutile (TiO2), and maghemite (Fe2O3) or magnetite (Fe3O4), the last two as magnetic components. Carbonates may be present at low concentrations only (less than 1 to 2 pct). However, a prime question to be addressed by a Mars Sample Return Mission shall be related to the mineralogical composition of the soil, and its spatial variability

The chemistry and mineralogy of Mars soil and dust

A single geological unit consisting of fine, apparently weathered soil material is covering large portions of the surface of Mars. This soil material has been thoroughly homogenized by global dust storms and it is plausible to assume that Mars dust is strongly correlated with it. The chemical-elemental composition of the soil was directly measured by the Viking Landers. Positive detection of Si, Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Ti, S, Cl, and Br was achieved. Analyses of the SNC meteorites, a group of meteorites that has been suggested to be ejected Martian rocks, supply additional elemental-concentration data, broadening considerably the chemical data-base on the surface materials. A composition model for Mars soil, giving selected average elemental concentrations of major and trace elements, was recently suggested. It was constructed by combining the Viking Lander data, the SNC meteorite analyses, and other analyses. The mineralogy of the surface materials on Mars has not been directly measured yet. By use of various indirect approaches, including chemical correspondence to the surface analyses, spectral analogies, simulations of Viking Lander experiments, analyses of the SNC meteorites and various modeling efforts, the mineralogical composition was constrained to some extent. No direct analyses of soil reactivity have been done yet. Indirect evidence, mostly from the Viking biology experimental results, suggests that the soil probably has a slightly acidic reaction and is generally oxidized. Unambiguous identification of the Mars soil minerals by direct mineralogical analyses, and non-disturbed or in-situ measurements of the soil's reactivity, are of primary importance in future Mars research

Smectites versus palagonites in Mars soil: Evidence from simulations of Viking biology labeled release experiments

The results of an experimental comparison between palagonites and a smectite (montmorillonite) in the simulation of the Viking Biology Labeled Release (LR) experiment and conclusions regarding their suitability as MarSAMs are reproved. It was found that palagonites do not cause formate decomposition and C-14 release in their natural form or after acidification and thus cannot be a completely satisfactory analog to the Mars soil studied by Viking

Application of symbol-operator technique for effective action computation

In the present talk we briefly demonstrate an elegant and effective technique for calculation of the trace expansion in the derivatives of background fields. One of main advantages of the technique is manifestly (super)symmetrical and gauge invariant form of expressions on all stages of calculations. Other advantage is the universality of the calculation method. Some particular examples and results are presented.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex, Extended version of the talk given at the Fifth Workshop on Quantum Field Theory under the Influence of External Conditions, Leipzig, 10-15 Sept. 200

One-loop effective potential in N=1/2{\cal N}={1/2} generic chiral superfield model

We obtain the one-loop quantum corrections to the K\"ahlerian and superpotentials in the generic chiral superfield model on the nonanticommutative superspace. Unlike all previous works, we use a method which does not require to rewrite a star-product of superfields in terms of ordinary products. In the K\"ahlerian potential sector the one-loop contributions are analogous to ones in the undeformed theory while in the chiral potential sector the quantum corrections contain a deformation parameter.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, Typos correcte