AKATSUKI-IR2 reveals unexpected opacity disruption affecting Venus's lower clouds every 9 days

The images of AKATSUKI acquired with the camera IR2 at 1.74-2.3 µm report the discovery of an equatorial disruption or “front” in the opacity of the lower clouds of Venus at 50 km between 30ºN¿30ºS. This feature appears on the night every 9 terrestrial days during more than 8 months, and introduces a dramatic and abrupt increase of the cloud opacity and reducing the thermal radiance in a factor of about 1:2 from its brightest to the darkest side.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Elicitation of Potent Neutralizing Antibody Responses by Designed Protein Nanoparticle Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2

Walls et al. describe a potential nanoparticle vaccine for COVID-19, made of a self-assembling protein nanoparticle displaying the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain in a highly immunogenic array reminiscent of the natural virus. Their nanoparticle vaccine candidate elicits a diverse, potent, and protective antibody response, including neutralizing antibody titers 10-fold higher than the prefusion-stabilized spike ectodomain trimer

Elicitation of broadly protective sarbecovirus immunity by receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccines

Understanding vaccine-elicited protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants and other sarbecoviruses is key for guiding public health policies. We show that a clinical stage multivalent SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain nanoparticle vaccine (RBD-NP) protects mice from SARS-CoV-2 challenge after a single immunization, indicating a potential dose-sparing strategy. We benchmarked serum neutralizing activity elicited by RBD-NP in non-human primates against a lead prefusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike (HexaPro) using a panel of circulating mutants. Polyclonal antibodies elicited by both vaccines are similarly resilient to many RBD residue substitutions tested although mutations at and surrounding position 484 have negative consequences for neutralization. Mosaic and cocktail nanoparticle immunogens displaying multiple sarbecovirus RBDs elicit broad neutralizing activity in mice and protect mice against SARS-CoV challenge even in the absence of SARS-CoV RBD in the vaccine. This study provides proof of principle that multivalent sarbecovirus RBD-NPs induce heterotypic protection and motivates advancing such broadly protective sarbecovirus vaccines to the clinic

Codes for Martian dust storm segmentation

Codes for Martian dust storm segmentation cited by Ogohara and Gichu (2021, Computers and Geosciences

Transport processes of dust and water in the Martian atmosphere revealed by the MMX Infrared Spectrometer (MIRS): Fast retrieval code for aerosol and gaseous profiles for limb-sounding

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