The Axial Double Probe (ADP) instrument measures the DC to ∼100 kHz electric field along the spin axis of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft (Burch et al., Space Sci. Rev.,
2014, this ...issue
), completing the vector electric field when combined with the spin plane double probes (SDP) (Torbert et al., Space Sci. Rev.,
2014, this issue
, Lindqvist et al., Space Sci. Rev.,
2014, this issue
). Two cylindrical sensors are separated by over 30 m tip-to-tip, the longest baseline on an axial DC electric field ever attempted in space. The ADP on each of the spacecraft consists of two identical, 12.67 m graphite coilable booms with second, smaller 2.25 m booms mounted on their ends. A significant effort was carried out to assure that the potential field of the MMS spacecraft acts equally on the two sensors and that photo- and secondary electron currents do not vary over the spacecraft spin. The ADP on MMS is expected to measure DC electric field with a precision of ∼1 mV/m, a resolution of ∼25 μV/m, and a range of ∼±1 V/m in most of the plasma environments MMS will encounter. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) units on the MMS spacecraft are designed to perform analog conditioning, analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, and digital processing on the ADP, SDP, and search coil magnetometer (SCM) (Le Contel et al., Space Sci. Rev.,
2014, this issue
) signals. The DSP units include digital filters, spectral processing, a high-speed burst memory, a solitary structure detector, and data compression. The DSP uses precision analog processing with, in most cases, >100 dB in dynamic range, better that −80 dB common mode rejection in electric field (
E
) signal processing, and better that −80 dB cross talk between the
E
and SCM (
B
) signals. The A/D conversion is at 16 bits with ∼1/4 LSB accuracy and ∼1 LSB noise. The digital signal processing is powerful and highly flexible allowing for maximum scientific return under a limited telemetry volume. The ADP and DSP are described in this article.
We describe the sensors, the sensor biasing and control, the signal-processing unit, and the operation of the Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN ...(MAVEN) mission. The LPW instrument is designed to measure the electron density and temperature in the ionosphere of Mars and to measure spectral power density of waves (DC-2 MHz) in Mars’ ionosphere, including one component of the electric field. Low-frequency plasma waves can heat ions resulting in atmospheric loss. Higher-frequency waves are used to calibrate the density measurement and to study strong plasma processes. The LPW is part of the Particle and Fields (PF) suite on the MAVEN spacecraft. The LPW instrument utilizes two, 40 cm long by 0.635 cm diameter cylindrical sensors with preamplifiers, which can be configured to measure either plasma currents or plasma waves. The sensors are mounted on a pair of
∼
7
meter long stacer booms. The sensors and nearby surfaces are controlled by a Boom Electronics Board (BEB). The Digital Fields Board (DFB) conditions the analog signals, converts the analog signals to digital, processes the digital signals including spectral analysis, and packetizes the data for transmission. The BEB and DFB are located inside of the Particle and Fields Digital Processing Unit (PFDPU).
The Search-Coil Magnetometer for MMS Le Contel, O.; Leroy, P.; Roux, A. ...
Space Science Reviews,
03/2016, Volume:
199, Issue:
1-4
Journal Article, Book Review
Peer reviewed
Open access
The tri-axial search-coil magnetometer (SCM) belongs to the FIELDS instrumentation suite on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission (Torbert et al. in Space Sci. Rev. (
2014
), this issue). It ...provides the three magnetic components of the waves from 1 Hz to 6 kHz in particular in the key regions of the Earth’s magnetosphere namely the subsolar region and the magnetotail. Magnetospheric plasmas being collisionless, such a measurement is crucial as the electromagnetic waves are thought to provide a way to ensure the conversion from magnetic to thermal and kinetic energies allowing local or global reconfigurations of the Earth’s magnetic field. The analog waveforms provided by the SCM are digitized and processed inside the digital signal processor (DSP), within the Central Electronics Box (CEB), together with the electric field data provided by the spin-plane double probe (SDP) and the axial double probe (ADP). On-board calibration signal provided by DSP allows the verification of the SCM transfer function once per orbit. Magnetic waveforms and on-board spectra computed by DSP are available at different time resolution depending on the selected mode. The SCM design is described in details as well as the different steps of the ground and in-flight calibrations.
Malaria, caused by Plasmodium sp, results in almost one million deaths and over 200 million new infections annually. The World Health Organization has recommended that artemisinin-based combination ...therapies be used for treatment of malaria. Artemisinin is a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from the plant Artemisia annua. However, the supply and price of artemisinin fluctuate greatly, and an alternative production method would be valuable to increase availability. We describe progress toward the goal of developing a supply of semisynthetic artemisinin based on production of the artemisinin precursor amorpha-4,11-diene by fermentation from engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and its chemical conversion to dihydroartemisinic acid, which can be subsequently converted to artemisinin. Previous efforts to produce artemisinin precursors used S. cerevisiae S288C overexpressing selected genes of the mevalonate pathway Ro et al. (2006) Nature 440:940–943. We have now overexpressed every enzyme of the mevalonate pathway to ERG20 in S. cerevisiae CEN.PK2, and compared production to CEN.PK2 engineered identically to the previously engineered S288C strain. Overexpressing every enzyme of the mevalonate pathway doubled artemisinic acid production, however, amorpha-4,11-diene production was 10-fold higher than artemisinic acid. We therefore focused on amorpha-4,11-diene production. Development of fermentation processes for the reengineered CEN.PK2 amorpha-4,11-diene strain led to production of > 40 g/L product. A chemical process was developed to convert amorpha-4,11-diene to dihydroartemisinic acid, which could subsequently be converted to artemisinin. The strains and procedures described represent a complete process for production of semisynthetic artemisinin.
Particle acceleration and loss in the million electron Volt (MeV) energy range (and above) is the least understood aspect of radiation belt science. In order to measure cleanly and separately both ...the energetic electron and energetic proton components, there is a need for a carefully designed detector system. The Relativistic Electron-Proton Telescope (REPT) on board the Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) pair of spacecraft consists of a stack of high-performance silicon solid-state detectors in a telescope configuration, a collimation aperture, and a thick case surrounding the detector stack to shield the sensors from penetrating radiation and bremsstrahlung. The instrument points perpendicular to the spin axis of the spacecraft and measures high-energy electrons (up to ∼20 MeV) with excellent sensitivity and also measures magnetospheric and solar protons to energies well above
E
=100 MeV. The instrument has a large geometric factor (
g
=0.2 cm
2
sr) to get reasonable count rates (above background) at the higher energies and yet will not saturate at the lower energy ranges. There must be fast enough electronics to avert undue dead-time limitations and chance coincidence effects. The key goal for the REPT design is to measure the directional electron intensities (in the range 10
−2
–10
6
particles/cm
2
s sr MeV) and energy spectra (Δ
E
/
E
∼25 %) throughout the slot and outer radiation belt region. Present simulations and detailed laboratory calibrations show that an excellent design has been attained for the RBSP needs. We describe the engineering design, operational approaches, science objectives, and planned data products for REPT.
Summary
Background
The role of maternal avoidance diets in the prevention of food allergies is currently under debate. Little is known regarding the effects of such diets on human milk (HM) ...composition or induction of infant humoral responses.
Objective
To assess the association of maternal cow's milk (CM) avoidance during breastfeeding with specific IgA levels in HM and development of cow's milk allergy (CMA) in infants.
Methods
We utilized HM and infant serum samples from a prospective birth cohort of 145 dyads. Maternal serum and HM samples were assessed for casein and beta‐lactoglobulin (BLG)‐specific IgA and IgG by ELISA; 21 mothers prophylactically initiated a strict maternal CM avoidance diet due to a sibling's history of food allergy and 16 due to atopic eczema or regurgitation/vomiting seen in their infants within the first 3 months of life. Infants' sera were assessed for casein and BLG‐specific IgG, IgA and IgE; CMA was confirmed by an oral food challenge. The impact of HM on BLG uptake was assessed in transcytosis assays utilizing Caco‐2 intestinal epithelial cell line.
Results
Mothers avoiding CM had lower casein‐ and BLG‐specific IgA in HM than mothers with no CM restriction (P = 0.019 and P = 0.047). Their infants had lower serum casein‐ and BLG‐specific IgG1 (P = 0.025 and P < 0.001) and BLG‐specific IgG4 levels (P = 0.037), and their casein‐ and BLG‐specific IgA levels were less often detectable than those with no CM elimination diet (P = 0.003 and P = 0.007). Lower CM‐specific IgG4 and IgA levels in turn were associated with infant CMA. Transcytosis of BLG was impaired by HM with high, but not low levels of specific IgA.
Conclusions
Maternal CM avoidance was associated with lower levels of mucosal‐specific IgA levels and the development of CMA in infants.
Clinical relevance
HM IgA may play a role in preventing excessive, uncontrolled food antigen uptake in the gut lumen and thereby in the prevention of CMA.
The FIELDS instrumentation suite on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission provides comprehensive measurements of the full vector magnetic and electric fields in the reconnection regions ...investigated by MMS, including the dayside magnetopause and the night-side magnetotail acceleration regions out to 25 Re. Six sensors on each of the four MMS spacecraft provide overlapping measurements of these fields with sensitive cross-calibrations both before and after launch. The FIELDS magnetic sensors consist of redundant flux-gate magnetometers (AFG and DFG) over the frequency range from DC to 64 Hz, a search coil magnetometer (SCM) providing AC measurements over the full whistler mode spectrum expected to be seen on MMS, and an Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) that calibrates offsets for the magnetometers. The FIELDS three-axis electric field measurements are provided by two sets of biased double-probe sensors (SDP and ADP) operating in a highly symmetric spacecraft environment to reduce significantly electrostatic errors. These sensors are complemented with the EDI electric measurements that are free from all local spacecraft perturbations. Cross-calibrated vector electric field measurements are thus produced from DC to 100 kHz, well beyond the upper hybrid resonance whose frequency provides an accurate determination of the local electron density. Due to its very large geometric factor, EDI also provides very high time resolution (∼1 ms) ambient electron flux measurements at a few selected energies near 1 keV. This paper provides an overview of the FIELDS suite, its science objectives and measurement requirements, and its performance as verified in calibration and cross-calibration procedures that result in anticipated errors less than 0.1 nT in B and 0.5 mV/m in E. Summaries of data products that result from FIELDS are also described, as well as algorithms for cross-calibration. Details of the design and performance characteristics of AFG/DFG, SCM, ADP, SDP, and EDI are provided in five companion papers.
Changes in tree species distributions are a potential impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. The examination of tree species shifts in forests of the eastern United States largely has been ...limited to simulation activities due to a lack of consistent, long-term forest inventory datasets. The goal of this study was to compare current geographic distributions of tree seedlings (trees with a diameter at breast height ≤2.5
cm) with biomass (trees with a diameter at breast height >
2.5
cm) for sets of northern, southern, and general tree species in the eastern United States using a spatially balanced, region-wide forest inventory. Compared to mean latitude of tree biomass, mean latitude of seedlings was significantly farther north (>20
km) for the northern study species, while southern species had no shift, and general species demonstrated southern expansion. Density of seedlings relative to tree biomass of northern tree species was nearly 10 times higher in northern latitudes compared to southern latitudes. For forest inventory plots between 44° and 47° north latitude where southern tree species were identified, their biomass averaged 0.46
tonnes/ha while their seedling counts averaged 2600
ha
−1. It is hypothesized that as northern and southern tree species together move northward due to greater regeneration success at higher latitudes, general species may fill their vacated niches in southern locations. The results of this study suggest that the process of northward tree migration in the eastern United States is currently underway with rates approaching 100
km/century for many species.
Somatic variants are a major cause of human disease, including neurological disorders like focal epilepsies, but can be challenging to study due to their mosaicism in bulk tissue biopsies. Coupling ...single-cell genotype and transcriptomic data has potential to provide insight into the role somatic variants play in disease etiology, such as by determining what cell types are affected or how the mutations affect gene expression. Here, we asked whether commonly used single-nucleus 3'- or 5'-RNA-sequencing assays can be used to derive single-nucleus genotype data for a priori known variants that are located near to either end of a transcript. To that end, we compared performance of commercially available single-nuclei 3'- and 5'- gene expression kits using resected brain samples from three pediatric patients with focal epilepsy. We quantified the ability to detect genetic variants in single-nucleus datasets depending on distance from the transcript end. Finally, we demonstrated the ability to identify affected cell types in a patient with a RHEB somatic variant causing an epilepsy-associated cortical malformation. Our results demonstrate that single-nuclei 3' or 5'-RNA-sequencing data can be used to identify known somatic variants in single-nuclei when they are expressed within proximity to a transcript end.
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