Astrotech 21: A technology program for future astrophysics missions

The Astrotech 21 technology program is being formulated to enable a program of advanced astrophysical observatories in the first decade of the 21st century. This paper describes the objectives of Astrotech 21 and the process that NASA is using to plan and implement it. It also describes the future astrophysical mission concepts that have been defined for the twenty-first century and discusses some of the requirements that they will impose on information systems for space astrophysics

Spectroscopy of ultrathin epitaxial rutile TiO[sub 2](110) films grown on W(100)

Epitaxial ultrathin titanium dioxide films of 0.3 to similar to 7 nm thickness on a metal single crystal substrate have been investigated by high resolution vibrational and electron spectroscopies. The data complement previous morphological data provided by scanned probe microscopy and low energy electron diffraction to provide very complete characterization of this system. The thicker films display electronic structure consistent with a stoichiometric TiO2 phase. The thinner films appear nonstoichiometric due to band bending and charge transfer from the metal substrate, while work function measurements also show a marked thickness dependence. The vibrational spectroscopy shows three clear phonon bands at 368, 438, and 829 cm(-1) (at 273 K), which confirms a rutile structure. The phonon band intensity scales linearly with film thickness and shift slightly to lower frequencies with increasing temperature, in accord with results for single crystals. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics

Completed cohomology of Shimura curves and a p-adic Jacquet-Langlands correspondence

We study indefinite quaternion algebras over totally real fields F, and give an example of a cohomological construction of p-adic Jacquet-Langlands functoriality using completed cohomology. We also study the (tame) levels of p-adic automorphic forms on these quaternion algebras and give an analogue of Mazur's `level lowering' principle.Comment: Updated version. Contains some minor corrections compared to the published versio

Automorphy lifting for residually reducible ll-adic Galois representations, II

We prove new automorphy lifting theorems for residually reducible Galois representations of unitary type in which the residual representation is permitted to have an arbitrary number of irreducible constituents.Comment: Accepted versio

Carbon pools recover more quickly than plant biodiversity in tropical secondary forests.

Although increasing efforts are being made to restore tropical forests, little information is available regarding the time scales required for carbon and plant biodiversity to recover to the values associated with undisturbed forests. To address this knowledge gap, we carried out a meta-analysis comparing data from more than 600 secondary tropical forest sites with nearby undisturbed reference forests. Above-ground biomass approached equivalence to reference values within 80 years since last disturbance, whereas below-ground biomass took longer to recover. Soil carbon content showed little relationship with time since disturbance. Tree species richness recovered after about 50 years. By contrast, epiphyte richness did not reach equivalence to undisturbed forests. The proportion of undisturbed forest trees and epiphyte species found in secondary forests was low and changed little over time. Our results indicate that carbon pools and biodiversity show different recovery rates under passive, secondary succession and that colonization by undisturbed forest plant species is slow. Initiatives such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and REDD+ should therefore encourage active management to help to achieve their aims of restoring both carbon and biodiversity in tropical forests

Analysis of the mtDNA insertion site on chromosome 9L in maize inbreds using fluorescence in situ hybridization

Abstract only availableAlmost all eukaryotic nuclear genomes show evidence of organellar DNA insertions originating from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA). While the precise mechanisms of incorporation remain unknown, the phenomenon is frequent and ongoing in many species. In Zea mays, mtDNA insertions differ among inbred lines. A very large mtDNA insertion is found near the centromere of the long arm of chromosome 9 in the B73 inbred. This insertion contains the majority of the mitochondrial genome, while a similarly positioned insertion in the Mo17 inbred line is much smaller. We used recombinant inbred lines from the intermated B73 x Mo17 (IBM) population to determine if the insertions are indeed at the same position. We selected lines with recombination in this region of chromosome 9L. Using two mtDNA probes present in the insertions in both B73 and Mo17, we applied a chromosome painting technique called fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to root-tip metaphase chromosomes and looked for the presence of the mtDNA site on chromosome 9L in the selected IBM lines. If the mtDNA insertion sites in B73 and Mo17 are at different locations, then at least one of the recombinant IBM lines should not display a mtDNA insertion at the chromosome 9 location. However, all of the recombinant IBM lines examined displayed the mtDNA insertion site on chromosome 9L. This indicates that the Mo17 and B73 insertions likely occupy the same region on the chromosome. Furthermore, this suggests that the large mtDNA insertion occurred recently in B73 at a pre-existing site present in both B73 and Mo17.NSF-REU Program in Biological Sciences & Biochemistr

Hydrothermal activity lowers trophic diversity in Antarctic sedimented hydrothermal vents

Sedimented hydrothermal vents are those in which hydrothermal fluid vents through sediment and are among the least studied deep-sea ecosystems. We present a combination of microbial and biochemical data to assess trophodynamics between and within hydrothermally active and off-vent areas of the Bransfield Strait (1050–1647 m depth). Microbial composition, biomass and fatty acid signatures varied widely between and within vent and non-vent sites and provided evidence of diverse metabolic activity. Several species showed diverse feeding strategies and occupied different trophic positions in vent and non-vent areas and stable isotope values of consumers were generally not consistent with feeding structure morphology. Niche area and the diversity of microbial fatty acids reflected trends in species diversity and was lowest at the most hydrothermally active site. Faunal utilisation of chemosynthetic activity was relatively limited but was detected at both vent and non-vent sites as evidenced by carbon and sulphur isotopic signatures, suggesting that the hydrothermal activity can affect trophodynamics over a much wider area than previously thought