The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) is an integral part of the Athena Science payload. Serving primarily as the geologist's rock hammer, the RAT will expose fresh surfaces of Martian rocks to other ...instruments on the payload. The RAT also brushes dust and debris from an excavated hole or unaltered rocks. To accomplish these tasks autonomously, the RAT, a sophisticated 3‐axis precision‐controlled device, was designed. Data products derived from RAT telemetry enable the RAT to also act as an important rock physical properties science instrument. The returned RAT grinding and penetration rate data will be inverted and compared to a rock library on the Earth. The design is also very compact and lightweight: the RAT is contained within a cylinder 128 mm long and 85 mm in diameter and has a mass of 687 g.
Abstract
Experimental gridded forecasts of surface temperature issued by National Weather Service offices in the western United States during the 2003/04 winter season (18 November 2003–29 February ...2004) are evaluated relative to surface observations and gridded analyses. The 5-km horizontal resolution gridded forecasts issued at 0000 UTC for forecast lead times at 12-h intervals from 12 to 168 h were obtained from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD). Forecast accuracy and skill are determined relative to observations at over 3000 locations archived by MesoWest. Forecast quality is also determined relative to Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) analyses at 20-km resolution that are interpolated to the 5-km NDFD grid as well as objective analyses obtained from the Advanced Regional Prediction System Data Assimilation System that rely upon the MesoWest observations and RUC analyses. For the West as a whole, the experimental temperature forecasts issued at 0000 UTC during the 2003/04 winter season exhibit skill at lead times of 12, 24, 36, and 48 h on the basis of several verification approaches. Subgrid-scale temperature variations and observational and analysis errors undoubtedly contribute some uncertainty regarding these results. Even though the “true” values appropriate to evaluate the forecast values on the NDFD grid are unknown, it is estimated that the root-mean-square errors of the NDFD temperature forecasts are on the order of 3°C at lead times shorter than 48 h and greater than 4°C at lead times longer than 120 h. However, such estimates are derived from only a small fraction of the NDFD grid boxes. Incremental improvements in forecast accuracy as a result of forecaster adjustments to the 0000 UTC temperature grids from 144- to 24-h lead times are estimated to be on the order of 13%.
Amdoxovir (--β-D-2,6-diaminopurine dioxolane DAPD) is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) with activity against HIV-1. DAPD is deaminated in vivo by adenosine deaminase to ...(-)-β-D-dioxolane guanosine (DXG), a highly active anti-HIV compound. The median 50% effective concentrations (EC50) ± SD (representing antiviral activity against a laboratory-derived HIV-1 isolate) for DAPD and DXG in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were 4.0 ± 2.2 μmol/L and 0.25 ± 0.17 μmol/L, respectively. The 50% cytotoxic dose (CC50) of both DAPD and DXG was >500 μmol/L. Recombinant viruses and clinical isolates of HIV-1 from patients for whom NRTI therapy and/or nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) combination therapies failed remained susceptible to inhibition by DXG (less than fourfold change in EC50). Similar analysis showed that recombinant viruses harboring mutations known to confer resistance to NRTIs (zidovudine, lamivudine, and abacavir) and NNRTIs (efavirenz and nevirapine) as well as the multidrug resistance-associated mutation Q151M and double codon insertions (SS and SG) were also susceptible to inhibition by DXG. Resistance to DXG was observed only in recombinant isolates containing the 65R and 151M double mutations. Phenotypic analysis of a site-directed mutant containing only the 151M mutation demonstrated moderate resistance to DXG (<10-fold change in EC50). We also examined site-directed mutants containing only L74V or K65R, the characteristic resistance mutations for DXG. The L74V mutant remained susceptible to inhibition by DXG, and the K65R mutant demonstrated moderate resistance to DXG.
The Mars Exploration Rovers each carry a set of Magnetic Properties Experiments designed with the following objectives in mind: (1) to identify the magnetic mineral(s) in the dust, soil and rocks on ...Mars, (2) to establish if the magnetic material is present in the form of nanosized (d < 10 nm) superparamagnetic crystallites embedded in the micrometer sized airborne dust particles, and (3) to establish if the magnets are culling a subset of strongly magnetic particles or if essentially all particles of the airborne dust are sufficiently magnetic to be attracted by the magnets. To accomplish these goals, the Mars Exploration Rovers each carry a set of permanent magnets of several different strengths and sizes. Each magnet has its own specific objective. The dust collected from the atmosphere by the Capture magnet and the Filter magnet (placed on the front of each rover) will be studied by the Mössbauer spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X‐ray Spectrometer, both of which are instruments located on the rover's Instrument Deployment Device. The captured dust particles will also be imaged by the Pancam and Microscopic Imager. The Sweep magnet will be imaged by Pancam and is placed near the Pancam calibration target. The four magnets in the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) are designed to capture magnetic particles originating from the grinding of Martian surface rocks. The magnetic particles captured by the RAT magnets will be imaged by Pancam.
Abstract
Federal, state, and other wildland resource management agencies contribute to the collection of weather observations from over 1000 Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) in the western ...United States. The impact of RAWS observations on surface objective analyses during the 2003/04 winter season was assessed using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) Data Assimilation System (ADAS). A set of control analyses was created each day at 0000 and 1200 UTC using the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) analyses as the background fields and assimilating approximately 3000 surface observations from MesoWest. Another set of analyses was generated by withholding all of the RAWS observations available at each time while 10 additional sets of analyses were created by randomly withholding comparable numbers of observations obtained from all sources.
Random withholding of observations from the analyses provides a baseline estimate of the analysis quality. Relative to this baseline, removing the RAWS observations degrades temperature (wind speed) analyses by an additional 0.5°C (0.9 m s−1) when evaluated in terms of rmse over the entire season. RAWS temperature observations adjust the RUC background the most during the early morning hours and during winter season cold pool events in the western United States while wind speed observations have a greater impact during active weather periods. The average analysis area influenced by at least 1.0°C (2.5°C) by withholding each RAWS observation is on the order of 600 km2 (100 km2). The spatial influence of randomly withheld observations is much less.
High-resolution DNA melting analysis of small amplicons is a simple and inexpensive technique for genotyping. Microfluidics allows precise and rapid control of temperature during melting.
Using a ...microfluidic platform for serial PCR and melting analysis, 4 targets containing single nucleotide variants were amplified and then melted at different rates over a 250-fold range from 0.13 to 32 °C/s. Genotypes (n = 1728) were determined manually by visual inspection after background removal, normalization, and conversion to negative derivative plots. Differences between genotypes were quantified by a genotype discrimination ratio on the basis of inter- and intragenotype differences using the absolute value of the maximum vertical difference between curves as a metric.
Different homozygous curves were genotyped by melting temperature and heterozygous curves were identified by shape. Technical artifacts preventing analysis (0.3%), incorrect (0.06%), and indeterminate (0.4%) results were minimal, occurring mostly at slow melting rates (0.13-0.5 °C/s). Genotype discrimination was maximal at around 8 °C/s (2-8 °C/s for homozygotes and 8-16 °C/s for heterozygotes), and no genotyping errors were made at rates >0.5 °C/s. PCR was completed in 10-12.2 min, followed by melting curve acquisition in 4 min down to <1 s.
Microfluidics enables genotyping by melting analysis at rates up to 32 °C/s, requiring <1 s to acquire an entire melting curve. High-speed melting reduces the time for melting analysis, decreases errors, and improves genotype discrimination of small amplicons. Combined with extreme PCR, high-speed melting promises nucleic acid amplification and genotyping in < 1 min.
The magnetic properties experiments are designed to help identify the magnetic minerals in the dust and rocks on Mars-and to determine whether liquid water was involved in the formation and ...alteration of these magnetic minerals. Almost all of the dust particles suspended in the martian atmosphere must contain ferrimagnetic minerals (such as maghemite or magnetite) in an amount of ~2% by weight. The most magnetic fraction of the dust appears darker than the average dust. Magnetite was detected in the first two rocks ground by Spirit.
Abstract
In 2006, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) implemented the Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA) in collaboration with the Earth System Research Laboratory and the ...National Environmental, Satellite, and Data Information Service (NESDIS). In this work, a description of the RTMA applied to the 5-km resolution conterminous U.S. grid of the National Digital Forecast Database is given. Its two-dimensional variational data assimilation (2DVAR) component used to analyze near-surface observations is described in detail, and a brief discussion of the remapping of the NCEP stage II quantitative precipitation amount and NESDIS Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) sounder effective cloud amount to the 5-km grid is offered. Terrain-following background error covariances are used with the 2DVAR approach, which produces gridded fields of 2-m temperature, 2-m specific humidity, 2-m dewpoint, 10-m U and V wind components, and surface pressure. The estimate of the analysis uncertainty via the Lanczos method is briefly described. The strength of the 2DVAR is illustrated by (i) its ability to analyze a June 2007 cold temperature pool over the Washington, D.C., area; (ii) its fairly good analysis of a December 2008 mid-Atlantic region high-wind event that started from a very weak first guess; and (iii) its successful recovery of the finescale moisture features in a January 2010 case study over southern California. According to a cross-validation analysis for a 15-day period during November 2009, root-mean-square error improvements over the first guess range from 16% for wind speed to 45% for specific humidity.
Emtricitabine (FTC) and lamivudine (3TC) are deoxycytidine analogues with potent and selective inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication. The K65R ...mutation in the HIV reverse transcriptase (RT) confers reduced susceptibility to 3TC, ddC, ddI, abacavir, and tenofovir in vitro. The Q151M mutation confers reduced susceptibility to many of the approved anti-HIV nucleoside analogues with the exception of 3TC and tenofovir. The double mutation K65R/Q151M has been shown to be more resistant to many NRTIs than either of the single mutations alone. In this study, we measured the antiviral activity of FTC and 3TC against HIV-1 containing K65R, Q151M, and K65R/Q151M mutations. We also studied the steady-state kinetic properties for the inhibition of dCTP incorporation by FTC 5′-triphosphate (TP) and 3TC-TP. In addition, we measured the incorporation of dCTP, FTC-TP, and 3TC-TP into a random sequence DNA/DNA primer/template by the HIV-1 RTs using pre-steady-state kinetic analysis. Finally, we studied the incorporation of these deoxycytidine analogues into a HIV-1 genomic DNA/DNA primer/template by K65R HIV-1 RT to address certain concerns associated with DNA sequence specificity. Overall, this study demonstrated that K65R and K65R/Q151M related drug resistance to FTC and 3TC was mainly due to a significant decrease in the rate of incorporation. There was little to no effect on the binding affinities of the mutant HIV-1 RTs for the deoxycytidine analogues. The Q151M mutation remained sensitive to both FTC and 3TC in both cell culture and enzymatic assays. At a molecular level, FTC-TP was incorporated at least as efficiently as 3TC-TP for all of the HIV-1 RT and primer/templates tested.
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