Research Activities on Venus Atmosphere Balloon Observation Mission

This presentation was part of the session : Probe Missions to the Giant Planets, Titan and VenusSixth International Planetary Probe WorkshopA feasibility study of the small Venus entry capsule and the scientific observation by the water-vapor balloon are described in this paper. Though Venus is the nearest planet to the Earth, it is still filled with mysteries and surprises. The atmosphere observation under the thick cloud on the venusian surface is of great scientific interests. Because a super-pressure type of the balloon can travel long time a wide area by strong winds on the Venus, it is considered to be of prime candidate for the atmosphere observations. A water-vapor super-pressure balloon is advantageous to obtain buoyancy force in the hot Venus atmosphere. At the entry to the Venus, the liquid-phase water is adhered to a number of the water-absorption films layered inside of the outer sealing film. The heat required for the water vaporization is supplied from the ambient environment during the ascending phase. Recently, IC chips, batteries, and solar arrays that function under the high-temperature environment ranging 180 to 220 ?C have been developed and been in practical use. By use of solar arrays, the electric power is supplied to the onboard instruments without any extra cooling system, which enables long-term observation. Then the target altitude is determined to be from 35 to 37 km considering the operation range of the high-temperature electronics. A small entry capsule with the 20m-long water-vapor balloon accommodated in it is separated from a 150kg small spacecraft and carries out direct entry from the interplanetary transfer orbit at the velocity of 11.5 km/s. The capsule releases the balloon at the appropriate altitude after passing through the aerodynamic heating corridor. Total weight of the capsule is about 30 kg containing balloon and observation instruments with weight of 10kg.Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ; Institute of Space and Astronautical Scienc

Vibrational and electronic spectra of (benzene-benzyl alcohol)+. Predominance of charge resonance interaction over hydrogen bonding interaction

Vibrational and electronic spectra of the benzene–benzyl alcohol hetero-dimer ion are measured by photodissociation spectroscopy. The vibrational spectrum shows a prominent band at 3662±3 cm-1, which is assigned to the stretching vibration of the OH group free from intermolecular perturbations. The electronic spectrum shows a broad band around 950 nm, which arises from a charge resonance interaction between the aromatic rings. These results suggest that the ion has a sandwich-like structure suitable for the resonance interaction, without the hydrogen bond between the OH group of benzyl alcohol and the π-electrons of benzene.This work was supported in part by the Joint Studies Program (1999) of the Institute for Molecular Science and the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 09740450 and 11440177) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.This is a postprint of an article published by Elsevier B.V. in Chemical Physics Letters, 2000, available online: http://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-2614(00)00379-

Quantification of Drug-Induced mRNA in Human Whole Blood

Apoptosis was induced in heparinized human whole blood by 3 different ways (radiation, bleomycin, or etoposide), and various mRNA were quantified using the method we reported (Clin. Chem. 2006; 52:634-642). We found that cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (p21) and p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) were the most sensitive and universal mRNA markers of apoptosis in leukocytes. In order to define positive and negative responses, a synthetic RNA was spiked into the lysis buffer and the fold increase was calculated. As a result, 837/880 (95.1%) of data points stayed between 0.75 and 1.5 fold increase, and 874/880 (99.3%) were within 0.5-2.0 fold increase. When blood samples from 40 healthy adults were stimulated with 22 different drugs, more than 75% of the samples responded to bleomycin (1 μM), idarubicin (2 μM), vincristine (1 μM), daunorubicin (2 μM), cytarabine (10 μM), to induce p21 and/or PUMA mRNA, and approximately 25% showed no induction. Significant correlation was found between p21 and PUMA mRNA responses, and between daunorubicin and cytarabine, idarubicin, and vincristine for both p21 and PUMA. The quantification of drug-induced mRNA in whole blood will be considered as ex vivo , and is a suitable platform for biomarker screening as well as a model system for drug sensitivity tests in future

Electronic and vibrational spectra of aniline―benzene heterodimer and aniline homo-dimer ions

Structures of (aniline-benzene)+ and (aniline)2+ are re-investigated by electronic spectroscopy in the near-infrared region and vibrational spectroscopy in the NH stretching region. The spectra of (aniline-benzene)+ indicate a structure including a hydrogen bond between an NH bond of the ionic aniline and the π-electrons of the neutral benzene. Two isomers are suggested for (aniline)2+ in which an NH bond of the ionic aniline forms different types of hydrogen bond with the neutral aniline: one with the π-electrons of the aromatic ring and the other with the lone pair of the nitrogen atom