Aspects of the Mass Distribution of Interstellar Dust Grains in the Solar System from In-Situ Measurements

The in-situ detection of interstellar dust grains in the Solar System by the dust instruments on-board the Ulysses and Galileo spacecraft as well as the recent measurements of hyperbolic radar meteors give information on the properties of the interstellar solid particle population in the solar vicinity. Especially the distribution of grain masses is indicative of growth and destruction mechanisms that govern the grain evolution in the interstellar medium. The mass of an impacting dust grain is derived from its impact velocity and the amount of plasma generated by the impact. Because the initial velocity and the dynamics of interstellar particles in the Solar System are well known, we use an approximated theoretical instead of the measured impact velocity to derive the mass of interstellar grains from the Ulysses and Galileo in-situ data. The revised mass distributions are steeper and thus contain less large grains than the ones that use measured impact velocities, but large grains still contribute significantly to the overall mass of the detected grains. The flux of interstellar grains with masses $> 10^{-14} {\rm kg}$ is determined to be $1\cdot 10^{-6} {\rm m}^{-2} {\rm s}^{-1}$. The comparison of radar data with the extrapolation of the Ulysses and Galileo mass distribution indicates that the very large ($m > 10^{-10} {\rm kg}$) hyperbolic meteoroids detected by the radar are not kinematically related to the interstellar dust population detected by the spacecraft.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, to appear in JG

Galileo dust data from the jovian system: 2000 to 2003

The Galileo spacecraft was orbiting Jupiter between Dec 1995 and Sep 2003. The Galileo dust detector monitored the jovian dust environment between about 2 and 370 R_J (jovian radius R_J = 71492 km). We present data from the Galileo dust instrument for the period January 2000 to September 2003. We report on the data of 5389 particles measured between 2000 and the end of the mission in 2003. The majority of the 21250 particles for which the full set of measured impact parameters (impact time, impact direction, charge rise times, charge amplitudes, etc.) was transmitted to Earth were tiny grains (about 10 nm in radius), most of them originating from Jupiter's innermost Galilean moon Io. Their impact rates frequently exceeded 10 min^-1. Surprisingly large impact rates up to 100 min^-1 occurred in Aug/Sep 2000 when Galileo was at about 280 R_J from Jupiter. This peak in dust emission appears to coincide with strong changes in the release of neutral gas from the Io torus. Strong variability in the Io dust flux was measured on timescales of days to weeks, indicating large variations in the dust release from Io or the Io torus or both on such short timescales. Galileo has detected a large number of bigger micron-sized particles mostly in the region between the Galilean moons. A surprisingly large number of such bigger grains was measured in March 2003 within a 4-day interval when Galileo was outside Jupiter's magnetosphere at approximately 350 R_J jovicentric distance. Two passages of Jupiter's gossamer rings in 2002 and 2003 provided the first actual comparison of in-situ dust data from a planetary ring with the results inferred from inverting optical images.Comment: 59 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables, submitted to Planetary and Space Scienc

In Situ Measurements of Interstellar Dust

We present the mass distribution of interstellar grains measured in situ by the Galileo and Ulysses spaceprobes as cumulative flux. The derived in situ mass distribution per logarithmic size interval is compared to the distribution determined by fitting extinction measurements. Large grains measured in situ contribute significantly to the overall mass of dust in the local interstellar cloud. The problem of a dust-to-gas mass ratio that contradicts cosmic abundances is discussed.Comment: 4 pages and two figure

OPTIMIST: A new conflict resolution algorithm for ACT-R.

Several studies have suggested recently that a more dynamic conflict resolution mechanism in the ACT-R cognitive architecture (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) could improve the decision-making behaviour of cognitive models. This part of ACT-R theory is revisited and a new solution is proposed. The new algorithm (OPTIMIST) has been implemented as an overlay to the ACT-R architecture, and can be used as an alternative mechanism. The operation of the new algorithm is tested in a model of the classical Yerkes and Dodson experiement of animals' learning. When OPTIMIST is used, the resulting model fits the data better than the previous model (e.g. R2 (R squared) increases from .85 to .93 in one example)

EBF1-deficient bone marrow stroma elicits persistent changes in HSC potential

Crosstalk between mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is essential for hematopoietic homeostasis and lineage output. Here, we investigate how transcriptional changes in bone marrow (BM) MSCs result in long-lasting effects on HSCs. Single-cell analysis of Cxcl12-abundant reticular (CAR) cells and PDGFRα+Sca1+ (PαS) cells revealed an extensive cellular heterogeneity but uniform expression of the transcription factor gene Ebf1. Conditional deletion of Ebf1 in these MSCs altered their cellular composition, chromatin structure and gene expression profiles, including the reduced expression of adhesion-related genes. Functionally, the stromal-specific Ebf1 inactivation results in impaired adhesion of HSCs, leading to reduced quiescence and diminished myeloid output. Most notably, HSCs residing in the Ebf1-deficient niche underwent changes in their cellular composition and chromatin structure that persist in serial transplantations. Thus, genetic alterations in the BM niche lead to long-term functional changes of HSCs

Asymptotic theory for a moving droplet driven by a wettability gradient

An asymptotic theory is developed for a moving drop driven by a wettability gradient. We distinguish the mesoscale where an exact solution is known for the properly simplified problem. This solution is matched at both -- the advancing and the receding side -- to respective solutions of the problem on the microscale. On the microscale the velocity of movement is used as the small parameter of an asymptotic expansion. Matching gives the droplet shape, velocity of movement as a function of the imposed wettability gradient and droplet volume.Comment: 8 fig

On a phase-field model for electrowetting and other electrokinetic phenomena

In three space dimensions, we present existence results for weak solutions to a novel two-phase model for various electrokinetic phenomena, including in particular dynamic electrowetting with electrolytes. The model is thermodynamically consistent. It combines Navier-Stokes- and Cahn-Hilliard-type phase-field equations with Nernst-Planck equations for ion density-evolution and with an elliptic transmission problem for the electrostatic potential. As physical energy estimates guarantee only boundedness of ion densities in the Llog L-Orlicz class uniformly with respect to time, an iteration method is proposed to establish higher regularity and integrability results of these quantities. In an appendix, the derivation of the model is sketchedThis work was supported by DAAD, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia through the program Acciones Integradas Hispano Alemanas, project D/06/12788, and by Dr. Hertha und Helmut Schmauser-Stiftung

One year of Galileo dust data from the Jovian system: 1996

The dust detector system onboard Galileo records dust impacts in circumjovian space since the spacecraft has been injected into a bound orbit about Jupiter in December 1995. This is the sixth in a series of papers dedicated to presenting Galileo and Ulysses dust data. We present data from the Galileo dust instrument for the period January to December 1996 when the spacecraft completed four orbits about Jupiter (G1, G2, C3 and E4). Data were obtained as high resolution realtime science data or recorded data during a time period of 100 days, or via memory read-outs during the remaining times. Because the data transmission rate of the spacecraft is very low, the complete data set (i. e. all parameters measured by the instrument during impact of a dust particle) for only 2% (5353) of all particles detected could be transmitted to Earth; the other particles were only counted. Together with the data for 2883 particles detected during Galileo's interplanetary cruise and published earlier, complete data of 8236 particles detected by the Galileo dust instrument from 1989 to 1996 are now available. The majority of particles detected are tiny grains (about 10 nm in radius) originating from Jupiter's innermost Galilean moon Io. These grains have been detected throughout the Jovian system and the highest impact rates exceeded $\rm 100 min^{-1}$. A small number of grains has been detected in the close vicinity of the Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto which belong to impact-generated dust clouds formed by (mostly submicrometer sized) ejecta from the surfaces of the moons (Kr\"uger et al., Nature, 399, 558, 1999). Impacts of submicrometer to micrometer sized grains have been detected thoughout the Jovian system and especially in the region between the Galilean moons.Comment: accepted for Planetary and Space Science, 33 pages, 6 tables, 10 figure