16,617 research outputs found
Earth-based radar contribution to Mars sample return
Earth based radar has often observed planets decades before space missions and provided valuable information leading to the success of those missions. As a Mars Sample Return Mission is contemplated, possible measurements by earth based radar should be reviewed. Earth based radars provide measurements of topography, bulk dielectric constants, rms slopes, and surface rock populations. All of these measurement will be valuable to a Mars Sample Return Mission. The 1988 and 1990 oppositions provide excellent positions for the extension of southern earth based coverage of Mars to -25 deg, while oppositions for the rest of the 1990's will provide coverage of northern latitudes to 25 deg
Mars: Seasonally variable radar reflectivity
Since reflectivity is a quantity characteristic of a given target at a particular geometry, the same (temporally unchanging) target examined by radar on different occasions should have the same reflectivity. Zisk and Mouginis-Mark noted that the average reflectivities in the Goldstone Mars data increased as the planet's S hemisphere passed from the late spring into early summer. The same data set was re-examined and the presence of the phenomenon of the apparent seasonal variability of radar reflectivity was confirmed. Two objections to these findings are addressed: (1) reflectivity variations may be present in the Goldstone Mars data as a result of an instrument/calibration error; and (2) the variations were introduced into the analysis through comparing reflectivities from two incompatible subsets of the data
Immune-Related Functions of the Hivep Gene Family in East African Cichlid Fishes
Immune-related genes are often characterized by adaptive protein evolution. Selection on immune genes can be particularly strong when hosts encounter novel parasites, for instance, after the colonization of a new habitat or upon the exploitation of vacant ecological niches in an adaptive radiation. We examined a set of new candidate immune genes in East African cichlid fishes. More specifically, we studied the signatures of selection in five paralogs of the human immunodeficiency virus type I enhancer-binding protein (Hivep) gene family, tested their involvement in the immune defense, and related our results to explosive speciation and adaptive radiation events in cichlids. We found signatures of long-term positive selection in four Hivep paralogs and lineage-specific positive selection in Hivep3b in two radiating cichlid lineages. Exposure of the cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni to a vaccination with Vibrio anguillarum bacteria resulted in a positive correlation between immune response parameters and expression levels of three Hivep loci. This work provides the first evidence for a role of Hivep paralogs in teleost immune defense and links the signatures of positive selection to host-pathogen interactions within an adaptive radiation
Earth - venus trajectories, 1968-69, volume 4, part b
Earth-venus trajectories 1968-196
Mott-Hubbard exciton in the optical conductivity of YTiO3 and SmTiO3
In the Mott-Hubbard insulators YTiO3 and SmTiO3 we study optical excitations
from the lower to the upper Hubbard band, d^1d^1 -> d^0d^2. The multi-peak
structure observed in the optical conductivity reflects the multiplet structure
of the upper Hubbard band in a multi-orbital system. Absorption bands at 2.55
and 4.15 eV in the ferromagnet YTiO3 correspond to final states with a triplet
d^2 configuration, whereas a peak at 3.7 eV in the antiferromagnet SmTiO3 is
attributed to a singlet d^2 final state. A strongly temperature-dependent peak
at 1.95 eV in YTiO3 and 1.8 eV in SmTiO3 is interpreted in terms of a Hubbard
exciton, i.e., a charge-neutral (quasi-)bound state of a hole in the lower
Hubbard band and a double occupancy in the upper one. The binding to such a
Hubbard exciton may arise both due to Coulomb attraction between
nearest-neighbor sites and due to a lowering of the kinetic energy in a system
with magnetic and/or orbital correlations. Furthermore, we observe anomalies of
the spectral weight in the vicinity of the magnetic ordering transitions, both
in YTiO3 and SmTiO3. In the G-type antiferromagnet SmTiO3, the sign of the
change of the spectral weight at T_N depends on the polarization. This
demonstrates that the temperature dependence of the spectral weight is not
dominated by the spin-spin correlations, but rather reflects small changes of
the orbital occupation.Comment: Strongly extended version; new data of SmTiO3 included; detailed
discussion of temperature dependence include
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