Recent results from MAUS payloads

Project MAUS is a part of the German material sciences program and provides autonomous payloads for the Space Shuttle. These payloads are housed in canisters which are identical with those of NASA's Get-Away-Special program. The main components of the hardware are: a standard system consisting of power supply, experiment control, data acquisition and the experiment modules containing experiment specific hardware. Up to now, three MAUS modules with experiments from the area of material sciences have been flown as GAS payloads. Results will be reported from GAS Payload Number G-27 and G-28 flown aboard STS-51G

Future MAUS payload and the TWIN-MAUS configuration

The German MAUS project (materials science autonomous experiments in weightlessness) was initiated in 1979 for optimum utilization of NASA's Get Away Special (GAS) program. The standard MAUS system was developed to meet GAS requirements and can accommodate a wide variety of GAS-type experiments. The system offers a range of services to experimenters within the framework of standardized interfaces. Four MAUS payloads being prepared for future space shuttle flight opportunities are described. The experiments include critical Marangoni convection, oscillatory Marangoni convection, pool boiling, and gas bubbles in glass melts. Scientific objectives as well as equipment hardware are presented together with recent improvements to the MAUS standard system, e.g., a new experiment control and data management unit and a semiconductor memory. A promising means of increasing resources in the field of GAS experiments is the interconnection of GAS containers. This important feature has been studied to meet the challenge of future advanced payloads. In the TWIN-MAUS configuration, electrical power and data will be transferred between two containers mounted adjacent to each other

Detecting differences in volatile organic compounds produced by Leishmania infantum infected and uninfected dogs

The leishmaniases are a complex of parasitic diseases which cause approximately 30,000 deaths annually. In Brazil, leishmaniasis is a significant burden (Bezerra et al., 2018). Dogs are the main reservoir host for Leishmania (Le.) infantum parasites and are the source of infection for the human population. Le. infantum is transmitted to people via the bite of an infected Lutzomyia (Lu.) longipalpis sandfly. To disrupt this transmission cycle, it is important to identify Leishmania infected dogs and remove them from the population. However, current diagnostic methods are complex, can be inaccurate and therefore limit effective reservoir control. The aim of this study was to determine whether Leishmania infantum infected dogs could be discriminated from uninfected dogs using three different methodologies; a VOC Analyser, behavioural bioassay and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Previous studies have shown that animals (e.g. dogs, hamsters) infected with Leishmania parasites produce odours that are different to those produced by uninfected animals (De Oliveira et al., 2008; Magalhães-Júnior et al., 2014b). In this study the VOC analyser demonstrated the ability to reliably discriminate between Leishmania infected and uninfected dogs, with high sensitivity (97-100%) and specificity (95-100%). The accuracy demonstrated of this diagnostic is an improvement on the current in-field DPP test used for cVL diagnosis, with a sensitivity of 75-89% and specificity of 56-70% having been recently reported (Figueiredo et al., 2018). This result suggests the potential for this approach for the rapid, non-invasive POC diagnosis of dogs infected with leishmaniasis. Studies on the behavioural response of male and female to the odour of infected and uninfected dogs showed that female Lu. longipalpis were significantly more attracted to infected odour whereas males were not. This result may suggest that Leishmania could be manipulating canine host odour in order to aid its own transmission. Increased attractiveness of infected dog odour suggests the potential of whole dog odour baited traps as a novel vector control methodology. Further GC/MS analysis confirmed the differences observed between the odour profiles of infected and uninfected dogs through both the VOC Analyser and behavioural bioassays. This analysis also allowed for the identification of the chemical structure and composition of compounds present in infected dogs which have the potential to not only enhance the VOC Analyser as a cVL specific diagnostic, but also could be investigated as artificial compounds for odour baited sandfly traps

Ten past and ten future GAS/MAUS-payloads

MAUS (materials science autonomous experiments) is one out of a series of flight opportunities which the Space Program of West Germany offers to scientists from the disciplines of materials research and processing for performing materials science investigations under microgravity conditions. Up to now, ten MAUS experiments were flown which were dealing with the following scientific topics: decomposition of binary alloys with miscibility gap in the liquid state, interaction of a solidification front with dispersed particles, critical Marangoni number, investigation of the magnetic compound MnBi, shrinkage of gas bubbles in glass melts and slip casting. The ten future experiments are partly reflights with modification of the scientific objectives as well as new experiments in the fields of chemical reactions, heat transfer, glass technology and Ostwald ripening. Looking to ten flown payloads, the peculiarities of instrument technology in GAS-cans and its evolution is discussed with emphasis on structure, electronics and thermal design. A typical modern payload using 100 percent of the resource is presented

Multicultural Heritage of Villages in the Local Dimension on the Example of Dobroń Community

This paper presents the results of research on the issue of multiculturalism in the aspect of historical spatial layouts and selected objects of material heritage on the example of Dobroń community. The authors focused their attention on the genetic and settlement analysis and morphological reconstruction of selected villages, mainly related to so called „Olęder” and Frederician colonization from the 18th and 19th centuries. The article also presents the history and contemporary state of preservation of some objects associated with particular national and religious groups that left a clear traces in the cultural landscape of the examined area.Artykuł przedstawia wyniki badań dotyczących zagadnienia wielokulturowości wsi w aspekcie kształtowania historycznych układów przestrzennych oraz wybranych obiektów materialnego dziedzictwa na przykładzie gminy Dobroń. W opracowaniu skoncentrowano uwagę na dokonaniu analizy genetyczno-osadniczej i rekonstrukcji morfologicznej wybranych wsi, związanych głównie z kolonizacją olęderską i fryderycjańską w XVIII i XIX wieku. W artykule omówiono także dzieje i współczesny stan zachowania obiektów, powiązanych z konkretnymi grupami narodowymi oraz religijnymi, które pozostawiły wyraźny ślad w krajobrazie kulturowym na badanym obszarze

Syntactic Method for Vehicles Movement Description and Analysis

The syntactic primitives and the description language can be used for assignment and analysis of vehicles movement. The paper introduces a method that allows spotting vehicles’ manoeuvres on and between traffic lanes, observing images, registered by a video camera. The analysis algorithms of the vehicles’ movement trajectories were considered in this paper as well

H2O2 detection from intact mitochondria as a measure for one-electron reduction of dioxygen requires a non-invasive assay system11Dedicated to Prof. E. Elstner, on the occasion of his 60th anniversary.

AbstractEvaluation of the existence of superoxide radicals (O⋅−2), the site of generation and conditions required for one-e− transfer to oxygen from biological redox systems is a prerequisite for the understanding of the deregulation of O2 homeostasis leading to oxidative stress. Mitochondria are increasingly considered the major O⋅−2 source in a great variety of diseases and the aging process. Contradictory reports on mitochondrial O⋅−2 release prompted us to critically investigate frequently used O⋅−2 detection methods for their suitability. Due to the impermeability of the external mitochondrial membrane for most constituents of O⋅−2 detection systems we decided to follow the stable dismutation product H2O2. This metabolite was earlier shown to readily permeate into the cytosol. With the exception of tetramethylbenzidine none of the chemical reactants indicating the presence of H2O2 by horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed absorbance change were suited due to solubility problems or low extinction coefficients. Tetramethylbenzidine-dependent H2O2 detection was counteracted by rereduction of the dye through e− carriers of the respiratory chain. Although the fluorescent dyes scopoletin and homovanillic acid were found to be suited for the detection of mitochondrial H2O2 release, fluorescence change was strongly affected by mitochondrial protein constituents. The present study has resolved this problem by separating the detection system from H2O2-producing mitochondria