The Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN) is an international payload onboard the Chinese Chang’E-4 rover. It performed for the first time measurements of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) on the ...lunar surface. We show a typical mass separated ENA energy spectrum measured by the ASAN. After normalizing to the impinging solar wind proton energy, good agreement to previous measurements from Chandrayaan-1 and IBEX is found. The hydrogen ENA albedo is estimated to be 32% for energy above 30 eV, comparable to the estimates obtained from Chandrayaan-1 and IBEX. Particle fluxes at lower energies are generally higher than those observed by Chandrayaan-1 and IBEX, and possible reasons are discussed.
•First energetic neutral atom measurements directly on the lunar surface.•Good agreement with remote observations at higher energies.•Different from remote observations at lower energies.
Abstract
The highly varying plasma environment around comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko inspired an upgrade of the ion mass spectrometer (Rosetta Plasma Consortium Ion Composition Analyzer) with new ...operation modes, to enable high time resolution measurements of cometary ions. Two modes were implemented, one having a 4 s time resolution in the energy range 0.3–82 eV/q and the other featuring a 1 s time resolution in the energy range 13–50 eV/q. Comparing measurements made with the two modes, it was concluded that 4 s time resolution is enough to capture most of the fast changes of the cometary ion environment. The 1462 h of observations done with the 4 s mode were divided into hour-long sequences. It is possible to sort 84 per cent of these sequences into one of five categories, depending on their appearance in an energy–time spectrogram. The ion environment is generally highly dynamic, and variations in ion fluxes and energies are seen on time-scales of 10 s to several minutes.
The MEAP (Mars Environment Analogue Platform) mission was to fly a stratospheric balloon on a semicircular trajectory around the North Pole in summer 2008. The balloon platform carried the ...high-resolution neutral gas mass spectrometer P-BACE (Polar Balloon Atmospheric Composition Experiment) as scientific payload. MEAP/P-BACE is a joint project between the Esrange Space Center, Sweden, the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Kiruna, Sweden. Mission objectives were to validate the platform for future long duration flights around the North pole, to validate the P-BACE instrument design for planetary mission applications (conditions in the Earth stratosphere are similar to the conditions at the Mars surface), to study variation of the stratospheric composition during the flight and to gain experience in balloon based mass spectrometry. All objectives were fulfilled.
Epigenetic alterations may provide valuable insights into gene-environment interactions in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease IBD.
Genome-wide methylation was measured from peripheral ...blood using the Illumina 450k platform in a case-control study in an inception cohort (295 controls, 154 Crohn's disease CD, 161 ulcerative colitis UC, 28 IBD unclassified IBD-U) with covariates of age, sex and cell counts, deconvoluted by the Houseman method. Genotyping was performed using Illumina HumanOmniExpressExome-8 BeadChips and gene expression using the Ion AmpliSeq Human Gene Expression Core Panel. Treatment escalation was characterized by the need for biological agents or surgery after initial disease remission.
A total of 137 differentially methylated positions DMPs were identified in IBD, including VMP1/MIR21 p = 9.11 × 10-15 and RPS6KA2 6.43 × 10-13, with consistency seen across Scandinavia and the UK. Dysregulated loci demonstrate strong genetic influence, notably VMP1 p = 1.53 × 10-15. Age acceleration is seen in IBD coefficient 0.94, p < 2.2 × 10-16. Several immuno-active genes demonstrated highly significant correlations between methylation and gene expression in IBD, in particular OSM: IBD r = -0.32, p = 3.64 × 10-7 vs non-IBD r = -0.14, p = 0.77. Multi-omic integration of the methylome, genome and transcriptome also implicated specific pathways that associate with immune activation, response and regulation at disease inception. At follow-up, a signature of three DMPs TAP1, TESPA1, RPTOR were associated with treatment escalation to biological agents or surgery (hazard ratio of 5.19 CI: 2.14-12.56, logrank p = 9.70 × 10-4).
These data demonstrate consistent epigenetic alterations at diagnosis in European patients with IBD, providing insights into the pathogenetic importance and translational potential of epigenetic mapping in complex disease.
Active microbes likely have larger impact on gut health status compared to inactive or dormant microbes. We investigate the composition of active and total mucosal microbiota of treatment-naïve ...ulcerative colitis (UC) patients to determine the microbial picture at the start-up phase of disease, using both a 16S rRNA transcript and gene amplicon sequencing. DNA and RNA were isolated from the same mucosal colonic biopsies. Our aim was to identify active microbial members of the microbiota in early stages of disease and reveal which members are present, but do not act as major players. We demonstrated differences in active and total microbiota of UC patients when comparing inflamed to non-inflamed tissue. Several taxa, among them the Proteobacteria phyla and families therein, revealed lower transcriptional activity despite a high presence. The Bifidobacteriaceae family of the Actinobacteria phylum showed lower abundance in the active microbiota, although no difference in presence was detected. The most abundant microbiota members of the inflamed tissue in UC patients were not the most active. Knowledge of active members of microbiota in UC patients could enhance our understanding of disease etiology. The active microbial community composition did not deviate from the total when comparing UC patients to non-IBD controls.
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