Solar sail capture trajectories at Mercury

Mercury is an ideal environment for future planetary exploration by solar sail since it has proved difficult to reach with conventional propulsion and hence remains largely unexplored. In addition, its proximity to the Sun provides a solar sail acceleration of order ten times the sail characteristic acceleration at 1 AU. Conventional capture techniques are shown to be unsuitable for solar sails and a new method is presented. It is shown that capture is bound by upper and lower limits on the orbital elements of the approach orbit and that failure to be within limits results in a catastrophic collision with the planet. These limits are presented for a range of capture inclinations and sail characteristic accelerations. It is found that sail hyperbolic excess velocity is a critical parameter during capture at Mercury, with only a narrow allowed band in order to avoid collision with the planet. The new capture methodis demonstrated for a Mercury sample return mission

The Peak Brightness and Spatial Distribution of AGB Stars Near the Nucleus of M32

The bright stellar content near the center of the Local Group elliptical galaxy M32 is investigated with 0.12 arcsec FWHM H and K images obtained with the Gemini Mauna Kea telescope. Stars with K = 15.5, which are likely evolving near the tip of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), are resolved to within 2 arcsec of the nucleus, and it is concluded that the peak stellar brightness near the center of M32 is similar to that in the outer regions of the galaxy. Moreover, the projected density of bright AGB stars follows the visible light profile to within 2 arcsec of the nucleus, indicating that the brightest stars are well mixed throughout the galaxy. Thus, there is no evidence for an age gradient, and the radial variations in spectroscopic indices and ultraviolet colors that have been detected previously must be due to metallicity and/or some other parameter. We suggest that either the bright AGB stars formed as part of a highly uniform and coherent galaxy-wide episode of star formation, or they originated in a separate system that merged with M32.Comment: 9 pages of text, 3 figures. ApJ (Letters) in pres

A Functional Screen Provides Evidence for a Conserved, Regulatory, Juxtamembrane Phosphorylation Site in Guanylyl Cyclase A and B

Kinase homology domain (KHD) phosphorylation is required for activation of guanylyl cyclase (GC)-A and -B. Phosphopeptide mapping identified multiple phosphorylation sites in GC-A and GC-B, but these approaches have difficulty identifying sites in poorly detected peptides. Here, a functional screen was conducted to identify novel sites. Conserved serines or threonines in the KHDs of phosphorylated receptor GCs were mutated to alanine and tested for reduced hormone to detergent activity ratios. Mutation of Ser-489 in GC-B to alanine but not glutamate reduced the activity ratio to 60% of wild type (WT) levels. Similar results were observed with Ser-473, the homologous site in GC-A. Receptors containing glutamates for previously identified phosphorylation sites (GC-A-6E and GC-B-6E) were activated to ∼20% of WT levels but the additional glutamate substitution for S473 or S489 increased activity to near WT levels. Substrate-velocity assays indicated that GC-B-WT-S489E and GC-B-6E-S489E had lower Km values and that WT-GC-B-S489A, GC-B-6E and GC-B-6E-S489A had higher Km values than WT-GC-B. Homologous desensitization was enhanced when GC-A contained the S473E substitution, and GC-B-6E-S489E was resistant to inhibition by a calcium elevating treatment or protein kinase C activation – processes that dephosphorylate GC-B. Mass spectrometric detection of a synthetic phospho-Ser-473 containing peptide was 200–1300-fold less sensitive than other phosphorylated peptides and neither mass spectrometric nor 32PO4 co-migration studies detected phospho-Ser-473 or phospho-Ser-489 in cells. We conclude that Ser-473 and Ser-489 are Km-regulating phosphorylation sites that are difficult to detect using current methods

Tertiary halo and tertiary background in the low luminosity experimental insertion IR8 of the LHC

In our report we present the results for numerical simulation of tertiary halo and tertiary background in the LHC. We study the case of the proton losses in the betatron cleaning insertion IR7 with the subsequent tertiary halo generation in the downstream experimental insertion IR8. We analyze the formation of tertiary background in the experimental area of the IR8 and evaluate the performance of the machine-detector interface shielding with respect to this source of the background. The results obtained are compared with the previous estimates of the machine-induced background in the low luminosity insertions of the LHC, and the balance between different sources of the background is discussed

Suzaku Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei Detected in the Swift/BAT Survey: Discovery of "New Type" of Buried Supermassive Black Holes

We present the Suzaku broad band observations of two AGNs detected by the Swift/BAT hard X-ray (>15 keV) survey that did not have previous X-ray data, Swift J0601.9-8636 and Swift J0138.6-4001. The Suzaku spectra reveals in both objects a heavily absorbed power law component with a column density of NH =~ 10^{23.5-24} cm^{-2} that dominates above 10 keV, and an intense reflection component with a solid angle >~ $2\pi$ from a cold, optically thick medium. We find that these AGNs have an extremely small fraction of scattered light from the nucleus, <~ 0.5% with respect to the intrinsic power law component. This indicates that they are buried in a very geometrically-thick torus with a small opening angle and/or have unusually small amount of gas responsible for scattering. In the former case, the geometry of Swift J0601.9-8636 should be nearly face-on as inferred from the small absorption for the reflection component. The discovery of two such objects in this small sample implies that there must be a significant number of yet unrecognized, very Compton thick AGNs viewed at larger inclination angles in the local universe, which are difficult to detect even in the currently most sensitive optical or hard X-ray surveys.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette

Control-volume representation of molecular dynamics

A Molecular Dynamics (MD) parallel to the Control Volume (CV) formulation of fluid mechanics is developed by integrating the formulas of Irving and Kirkwood, J. Chem. Phys. 18, 817 (1950) over a finite cubic volume of molecular dimensions. The Lagrangian molecular system is expressed in terms of an Eulerian CV, which yields an equivalent to Reynolds' Transport Theorem for the discrete system. This approach casts the dynamics of the molecular system into a form that can be readily compared to the continuum equations. The MD equations of motion are reinterpreted in terms of a Lagrangian-to-Control-Volume (\CV) conversion function $\vartheta_{i}$, for each molecule $i$. The \CV function and its spatial derivatives are used to express fluxes and relevant forces across the control surfaces. The relationship between the local pressures computed using the Volume Average (VA, Lutsko, J. Appl. Phys 64, 1152 (1988)) techniques and the Method of Planes (MOP, Todd et al, Phys. Rev. E 52, 1627 (1995)) emerges naturally from the treatment. Numerical experiments using the MD CV method are reported for equilibrium and non-equilibrium (start-up Couette flow) model liquids, which demonstrate the advantages of the formulation. The CV formulation of the MD is shown to be exactly conservative, and is therefore ideally suited to obtain macroscopic properties from a discrete system.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figure

Exploring the psychological rewards of a familiar semirural landscape: connecting to local nature through a mindful approach

This study analyses a 53,000 word diary of a year engaging with nature through over 200 trips to a semi-rural landscape. Thematic analysis revealed two themes; the transition from observer to nature connectedness and the ways in which the natural environment was experienced once a connection was made. These themes are discussed in relation to theories that seek to explain the positive effect of nature and nature connectedness. The findings are important as they suggest that repeated engagement with local semi-rural countryside can lead to a mindful approach and psychological rewards that do not require travel into the wilderness. The work informs further research into outcomes and processes of nature based interventions such as: trip frequency, duration and diary keeping

Effect of Supplementation on Performance and Faecal Particle Size Distribution for Yearling Horses and Weaned Calves Grazing Coastal Bermudagrass

Supplements are often fed, especially to horses, without realistic expectations of the magnitude of performance response nor knowledge of biological or economic efficiencies of supplementation. The objectives of this experiment were to compare performance of weaned calves vs yearling horses grazing \u27Coastal\u27 bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers] (COS) pastures with and without a protein-energy supplement, and to assess faecal particle size distribution for both calves and horses to document digesta dynamics