ALBERT

Description: 252 transient drops in atmospheric pressure, likely caused by passing convective vortices, were detected by the REMS instrument during the first Martian year of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landed mission. These events resembled the vortex signatures detected by the previous Mars landers Pathfinder and Phoenix, however the MSL observations contained fewer pressure drops greater than 1.5 Pa and none greater than 3.0 Pa. Apparently these vortices were generally not lifting dust since only one probable dust devil has been observed visually by MSL [Moores et al., 2015]. Since ample dust seems to be present on the surface [Arvidson et al., 2014], the obvious explanation for this is the smaller number of strong vortices with large central pressure drops. The annual variation in the number of detected convective vortices followed approximately the variation in Dust Devil Activity (DDA) predicted by the MarsWRF numerical climate model. This result does not prove, however, that the amount of dust lifted by dust devils would depend linearly on DDA, as is assumed in several numerical models of the Martian atmosphere, since dust devils are only the most intense fraction of all convective vortices on Mars, and the amount of dust that can be lifted by a dust devil depends on its central pressure drop. Sol-to-sol variations in the number of vortices were usually small. However, on one sol a sudden increase in vortex activity, related to a dust storm front, was detected.

Description: Key Points A microwave oven method achieved solubilization of silicate rock powders in up to 4 h. The digestion conditions inhibit the precipitation of fluorides. Recoveries of investigated trace elements were mostly satisfactory, but a few specific exceptions require further investigation. The complete dissolution of representative test portions of powdered rock samples for the determination of the mass fractions of trace elements by ICP‐MS relies either on aggressive and time‐consuming acid digestions or fusion/sintering with appropriate fluxes. Here, we evaluate a microwave oven dissolution method that employs a solution of NH4HF2 and HNO3. The entire procedure occurs in a closed vessel system and takes up to 4 h. In hundreds of digestions, the precipitation of fluorides was never observed. Replicate decomposition of 100 mg of twenty‐one international reference materials (RMs) of igneous rocks, and also one of a shale presented mostly satisfactory recoveries of forty‐one trace elements. Important exceptions were Zr and Hf in G‐2 and GSP‐2 (mean recoveries of ca. 70%), although for four other felsic rock RMs, the digestion was complete. For ultramafic rock RMs, we present Cr results that indicate quantitative dissolution of Cr‐bearing phases. We discuss the findings and conclude that advances in sample preparation of geological materials for instrumental analysis would benefit from a better understanding of how specific characteristics, such as composition and crystallinity of certain minerals, may affect their reactivity.

Description: Bassil S, Kattar S, Navarro-Cerrillo RM, Navarrete Poyatos M&, Nemer N, Palacios Rodríguez G STAND STRUCTURE AND REGENERATION OF CEDRUS LIBANI (A. RICH) IN TANNOURINE CEDAR FOREST RESERVE (LEBANON) AFFECTED BY CEDAR WEB-SPINNING SAWFLY (CEPHALCIA TANNOURINENSIS, HYMENOPTERA: PAMPHILIIDAE). Abstract : The analysis of forest structure is a useful tool to understand stand biodiversity characterizing forest ecosystems, and could help in suggesting appropriate management plans. Cedar forests in Lebanon are remnant patches that survived past human activities but are still threatened by other different anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Among these threats, the cedar web-spinning sawfly (Cephalcia tannourinensis) discovered in Tannourine Cedar Forest Nature Reserve in 1997, which is able to cause the death of trees. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of this pest on the stand structure and regeneration of Cedrus libani in Tannourine Cedar Forest Nature Reserve located in North Lebanon. The dependence of stand structural attributes (diameter at breast height, total height and basal area) on the presence of infestation by the cedar web-spinning sawfly was identified using the Student’s t-test. The Ripley’s K(d) function was used to analyse the spatial pattern of cedar stands. In addition, the diameter, the vertical structure and the crown projection were characterized using the Weibull function and graphic representations. The results showed that stand structure and regeneration are significantly different between infested and non-infested stands. The cedar of Lebanon remains as the dominant species, with abundant young individuals and a good regeneration status (c = 1.0). The analysis of the spatial pattern showed a positive spatial relationship between mature Lebanese cedar trees as well as between mature and juvenile cedars, with a bigger aggregation in infested plots (6 to 10 meters) than in non-infested quadrates (2 to 7 meters), reflecting the impact of the cedar web-spinning sawfly on the stand structure and regeneration of Cedrus libani stands. Keywords : Cedrus libani, Stand Dynamic, Pest Damage, Spatial Pattern, Vertical Structure, Cephalcia tannourinensis iForest 11 (2): 300-307 (2018) - doi: 10.3832/ifor2502-011 http://iforest.sisef.org/contents/?id=ifor2502-011

Description: The generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has enabled the derivation of patient-specific pluripotent cells and provided valuable experimental platforms to model human disease. Patient-specific iPS cells are also thought to hold great therapeutic potential, although direct evidence for this is still lacking. Here we show that, on correction of the genetic defect, somatic cells from Fanconi anaemia patients can be reprogrammed to pluripotency to generate patient-specific iPS cells. These cell lines appear indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells from healthy individuals. Most importantly, we show that corrected Fanconi-anaemia-specific iPS cells can give rise to haematopoietic progenitors of the myeloid and erythroid lineages that are phenotypically normal, that is, disease-free. These data offer proof-of-concept that iPS cell technology can be used for the generation of disease-corrected, patient-specific cells with potential value for cell therapy applications.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720823/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720823/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Raya, Angel -- Rodriguez-Piza, Ignasi -- Guenechea, Guillermo -- Vassena, Rita -- Navarro, Susana -- Barrero, Maria Jose -- Consiglio, Antonella -- Castella, Maria -- Rio, Paula -- Sleep, Eduard -- Gonzalez, Federico -- Tiscornia, Gustavo -- Garreta, Elena -- Aasen, Trond -- Veiga, Anna -- Verma, Inder M -- Surralles, Jordi -- Bueren, Juan -- Izpisua Belmonte, Juan Carlos -- R01 HL053670/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL053670-14/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2009 Jul 2;460(7251):53-9. doi: 10.1038/nature08129. Epub 2009 May 31.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19483674" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Stable isotope ratios of H, C, and O are powerful indicators of a wide variety of planetary geophysical processes, and for Mars they reveal the record of loss of its atmosphere and subsequent interactions with its surface such as carbonate formation. We report in situ measurements of the isotopic ratios of D/H and (18)O/(16)O in water and (13)C/(12)C, (18)O/(16)O, (17)O/(16)O, and (13)C(18)O/(12)C(16)O in carbon dioxide, made in the martian atmosphere at Gale Crater from the Curiosity rover using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)'s tunable laser spectrometer (TLS). Comparison between our measurements in the modern atmosphere and those of martian meteorites such as ALH 84001 implies that the martian reservoirs of CO2 and H2O were largely established ~4 billion years ago, but that atmospheric loss or surface interaction may be still ongoing.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Webster, Chris R -- Mahaffy, Paul R -- Flesch, Gregory J -- Niles, Paul B -- Jones, John H -- Leshin, Laurie A -- Atreya, Sushil K -- Stern, Jennifer C -- Christensen, Lance E -- Owen, Tobias -- Franz, Heather -- Pepin, Robert O -- Steele, Andrew -- MSL Science Team -- Achilles, Cherie -- Agard, Christophe -- Alves Verdasca, Jose Alexandre -- Anderson, Robert -- Anderson, Ryan -- Archer, Doug -- Armiens-Aparicio, Carlos -- Arvidson, Ray -- Atlaskin, Evgeny -- Aubrey, Andrew -- Baker, Burt -- Baker, Michael -- Balic-Zunic, Tonci -- Baratoux, David -- Baroukh, Julien -- Barraclough, Bruce -- Bean, Keri -- Beegle, Luther -- Behar, Alberto -- Bell, James -- Bender, Steve -- Benna, Mehdi -- Bentz, Jennifer -- Berger, Gilles -- Berger, Jeff -- Berman, Daniel -- Bish, David -- Blake, David F -- Blanco Avalos, Juan J -- Blaney, Diana -- Blank, Jen -- Blau, Hannah -- Bleacher, Lora -- Boehm, Eckart -- Botta, Oliver -- Bottcher, Stephan -- Boucher, Thomas -- Bower, Hannah -- Boyd, Nick -- Boynton, Bill -- Breves, Elly -- Bridges, John -- Bridges, Nathan -- Brinckerhoff, William -- Brinza, David -- Bristow, Thomas -- Brunet, Claude -- Brunner, Anna -- Brunner, Will -- Buch, Arnaud -- Bullock, Mark -- Burmeister, Sonke -- Cabane, Michel -- Calef, Fred -- Cameron, James -- Campbell, John -- Cantor, Bruce -- Caplinger, Michael -- Caride Rodriguez, Javier -- Carmosino, Marco -- Carrasco Blazquez, Isaias -- Charpentier, Antoine -- Chipera, Steve -- Choi, David -- Clark, Benton -- Clegg, Sam -- Cleghorn, Timothy -- Cloutis, Ed -- Cody, George -- Coll, Patrice -- Conrad, Pamela -- Coscia, David -- Cousin, Agnes -- Cremers, David -- Crisp, Joy -- Cros, Alain -- Cucinotta, Frank -- d'Uston, Claude -- Davis, Scott -- Day, Mackenzie -- de la Torre Juarez, Manuel -- DeFlores, Lauren -- DeLapp, Dorothea -- DeMarines, Julia -- DesMarais, David -- Dietrich, William -- Dingler, Robert -- Donny, Christophe -- Downs, Bob -- Drake, Darrell -- Dromart, Gilles -- Dupont, Audrey -- Duston, Brian -- Dworkin, Jason -- Dyar, M Darby -- Edgar, Lauren -- Edgett, Kenneth -- Edwards, Christopher -- Edwards, Laurence -- Ehlmann, Bethany -- Ehresmann, Bent -- Eigenbrode, Jen -- Elliott, Beverley -- Elliott, Harvey -- Ewing, Ryan -- Fabre, Cecile -- Fairen, Alberto -- Farley, Ken -- Farmer, Jack -- Fassett, Caleb -- Favot, Laurent -- Fay, Donald -- Fedosov, Fedor -- Feldman, Jason -- Feldman, Sabrina -- Fisk, Marty -- Fitzgibbon, Mike -- Floyd, Melissa -- Fluckiger, Lorenzo -- Forni, Olivier -- Fraeman, Abby -- Francis, Raymond -- Francois, Pascaline -- Freissinet, Caroline -- French, Katherine Louise -- Frydenvang, Jens -- Gaboriaud, Alain -- Gailhanou, Marc -- Garvin, James -- Gasnault, Olivier -- Geffroy, Claude -- Gellert, Ralf -- Genzer, Maria -- Glavin, Daniel -- Godber, Austin -- Goesmann, Fred -- Goetz, Walter -- Golovin, Dmitry -- Gomez Gomez, Felipe -- Gomez-Elvira, Javier -- Gondet, Brigitte -- Gordon, Suzanne -- Gorevan, Stephen -- Grant, John -- Griffes, Jennifer -- Grinspoon, David -- Grotzinger, John -- Guillemot, Philippe -- Guo, Jingnan -- Gupta, Sanjeev -- Guzewich, Scott -- Haberle, Robert -- Halleaux, Douglas -- Hallet, Bernard -- Hamilton, Vicky -- Hardgrove, Craig -- Harker, David -- Harpold, Daniel -- Harri, Ari-Matti -- Harshman, Karl -- Hassler, Donald -- Haukka, Harri -- Hayes, Alex -- Herkenhoff, Ken -- Herrera, Paul -- Hettrich, Sebastian -- Heydari, Ezat -- Hipkin, Victoria -- Hoehler, Tori -- Hollingsworth, Jeff -- Hudgins, Judy -- Huntress, Wesley -- Hurowitz, Joel -- Hviid, Stubbe -- Iagnemma, Karl -- Indyk, Steve -- Israel, Guy -- Jackson, Ryan -- Jacob, Samantha -- Jakosky, Bruce -- Jensen, Elsa -- Jensen, Jaqueline Klovgaard -- Johnson, Jeffrey -- Johnson, Micah -- Johnstone, Steve -- Jones, Andrea -- Joseph, Jonathan -- Jun, Insoo -- Kah, Linda -- Kahanpaa, Henrik -- Kahre, Melinda -- Karpushkina, Natalya -- Kasprzak, Wayne -- Kauhanen, Janne -- Keely, Leslie -- Kemppinen, Osku -- Keymeulen, Didier -- Kim, Myung-Hee -- Kinch, Kjartan -- King, Penny -- Kirkland, Laurel -- Kocurek, Gary -- Koefoed, Asmus -- Kohler, Jan -- Kortmann, Onno -- Kozyrev, Alexander -- Krezoski, Jill -- Krysak, Daniel -- Kuzmin, Ruslan -- Lacour, Jean Luc -- Lafaille, Vivian -- Langevin, Yves -- Lanza, Nina -- Lasue, Jeremie -- Le Mouelic, Stephane -- Lee, Ella Mae -- Lee, Qiu-Mei -- Lees, David -- Lefavor, Matthew -- Lemmon, Mark -- Lepinette Malvitte, Alain -- Leveille, Richard -- Lewin-Carpintier, Eric -- Lewis, Kevin -- Li, Shuai -- Lipkaman, Leslie -- Little, Cynthia -- Litvak, Maxim -- Lorigny, Eric -- Lugmair, Guenter -- Lundberg, Angela -- Lyness, Eric -- Madsen, Morten -- Maki, Justin -- Malakhov, Alexey -- Malespin, Charles -- Malin, Michael -- Mangold, Nicolas -- Manhes, Gerard -- Manning, Heidi -- Marchand, Genevieve -- Marin Jimenez, Mercedes -- Martin Garcia, Cesar -- Martin, Dave -- Martin, Mildred -- Martinez-Frias, Jesus -- Martin-Soler, Javier -- Martin-Torres, F Javier -- Mauchien, Patrick -- Maurice, Sylvestre -- McAdam, Amy -- McCartney, Elaina -- McConnochie, Timothy -- McCullough, Emily -- McEwan, Ian -- McKay, Christopher -- McLennan, Scott -- McNair, Sean -- Melikechi, Noureddine -- Meslin, Pierre-Yves -- Meyer, Michael -- Mezzacappa, Alissa -- Miller, Hayden -- Miller, Kristen -- Milliken, Ralph -- Ming, Douglas -- Minitti, Michelle -- Mischna, Michael -- Mitrofanov, Igor -- Moersch, Jeff -- Mokrousov, Maxim -- Molina Jurado, Antonio -- Moores, John -- Mora-Sotomayor, Luis -- Morookian, John Michael -- Morris, Richard -- Morrison, Shaunna -- Mueller-Mellin, Reinhold -- Muller, Jan-Peter -- Munoz Caro, Guillermo -- Nachon, Marion -- Navarro Lopez, Sara -- Navarro-Gonzalez, Rafael -- Nealson, Kenneth -- Nefian, Ara -- Nelson, Tony -- Newcombe, Megan -- Newman, Claire -- Newsom, Horton -- Nikiforov, Sergey -- Nixon, Brian -- Noe Dobrea, Eldar -- Nolan, Thomas -- Oehler, Dorothy -- Ollila, Ann -- Olson, Timothy -- de Pablo Hernandez, Miguel Angel -- Paillet, Alexis -- Pallier, Etienne -- Palucis, Marisa -- Parker, Timothy -- Parot, Yann -- Patel, Kiran -- Paton, Mark -- Paulsen, Gale -- Pavlov, Alex -- Pavri, Betina -- Peinado-Gonzalez, Veronica -- Peret, Laurent -- Perez, Rene -- Perrett, Glynis -- Peterson, Joe -- Pilorget, Cedric -- Pinet, Patrick -- Pla-Garcia, Jorge -- Plante, Ianik -- Poitrasson, Franck -- Polkko, Jouni -- Popa, Radu -- Posiolova, Liliya -- Posner, Arik -- Pradler, Irina -- Prats, Benito -- Prokhorov, Vasily -- Purdy, Sharon Wilson -- Raaen, Eric -- Radziemski, Leon -- Rafkin, Scot -- Ramos, Miguel -- Rampe, Elizabeth -- Raulin, Francois -- Ravine, Michael -- Reitz, Gunther -- Renno, Nilton -- Rice, Melissa -- Richardson, Mark -- Robert, Francois -- Robertson, Kevin -- Rodriguez Manfredi, Jose Antonio -- Romeral-Planello, Julio J -- Rowland, Scott -- Rubin, David -- Saccoccio, Muriel -- Salamon, Andrew -- Sandoval, Jennifer -- Sanin, Anton -- Sans Fuentes, Sara Alejandra -- Saper, Lee -- Sarrazin, Philippe -- Sautter, Violaine -- Savijarvi, Hannu -- Schieber, Juergen -- Schmidt, Mariek -- Schmidt, Walter -- Scholes, Daniel -- Schoppers, Marcel -- Schroder, Susanne -- Schwenzer, Susanne -- Sebastian Martinez, Eduardo -- Sengstacken, Aaron -- Shterts, Ruslan -- Siebach, Kirsten -- Siili, Tero -- Simmonds, Jeff -- Sirven, Jean-Baptiste -- Slavney, Susie -- Sletten, Ronald -- Smith, Michael -- Sobron Sanchez, Pablo -- Spanovich, Nicole -- Spray, John -- Squyres, Steven -- Stack, Katie -- Stalport, Fabien -- Stein, Thomas -- Stewart, Noel -- Stipp, Susan Louise Svane -- Stoiber, Kevin -- Stolper, Ed -- Sucharski, Bob -- Sullivan, Rob -- Summons, Roger -- Sumner, Dawn -- Sun, Vivian -- Supulver, Kimberley -- Sutter, Brad -- Szopa, Cyril -- Tan, Florence -- Tate, Christopher -- Teinturier, Samuel -- ten Kate, Inge -- Thomas, Peter -- Thompson, Lucy -- Tokar, Robert -- Toplis, Mike -- Torres Redondo, Josefina -- Trainer, Melissa -- Treiman, Allan -- Tretyakov, Vladislav -- Urqui-O'Callaghan, Roser -- Van Beek, Jason -- Van Beek, Tessa -- VanBommel, Scott -- Vaniman, David -- Varenikov, Alexey -- Vasavada, Ashwin -- Vasconcelos, Paulo -- Vicenzi, Edward -- Vostrukhin, Andrey -- Voytek, Mary -- Wadhwa, Meenakshi -- Ward, Jennifer -- Weigle, Eddie -- Wellington, Danika -- Westall, Frances -- Wiens, Roger Craig -- Wilhelm, Mary Beth -- Williams, Amy -- Williams, Joshua -- Williams, Rebecca -- Williams, Richard B -- Wilson, Mike -- Wimmer-Schweingruber, Robert -- Wolff, Mike -- Wong, Mike -- Wray, James -- Wu, Megan -- Yana, Charles -- Yen, Albert -- Yingst, Aileen -- Zeitlin, Cary -- Zimdar, Robert -- Zorzano Mier, Maria-Paz -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Jul 19;341(6143):260-3. doi: 10.1126/science.1237961.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. chris.r.webster@jpl.nasa.gov〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23869013" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: We use the very high resolution, fully cosmological simulations from the Aquarius Project, coupled to a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation, to study the phase-space distribution of halo stars in ‘solar neighbourhood’ like volumes. We find that this distribution is very rich in substructure in the form of stellar streams for all five stellar haloes we have analysed. These streams can be easily identified in velocity space, as well as in spaces of pseudo-conserved quantities such as E versus L z . In our best resolved local volumes, the number of identified streams ranges from 300 to 600, in very good agreement with previous analytical predictions, even in the presence of chaotic mixing. The fraction of particles linked to (massive) stellar streams in these volumes can be as large as 84 per cent. The number of identified streams is found to decrease as a power law with galactocentric radius. We show that the strongest limitation to the quantification of substructure in our poorest resolved local volumes is particle resolution rather than strong diffusion due to chaotic mixing.

Description: The first in situ investigation of an active dune field on another planetary surface occurred in 2015-2016 when the MSL Curiosity rover investigated the Bagnold Dunes on Mars. HIRISE images show clear seasonal variations that are in good agreement with atmospheric model predictions of intra-annual sand flux and migration directions that together indicate that the campaign occurred during a period of low wind activity. Curiosity surface images show that limited changes nevertheless occurred, with movement of large grains, particularly on freshly exposed surfaces, two occurrences of secondary grain flow on the slip face of Namib Dune, and a slump on a freshly exposed surface of a large ripple. These changes are seen at sol-to-sol time scales. Grains on a rippled sand deposit and unconsolidated dump piles show limited movement of large grains over a few hours during which mean friction speeds are estimated at 0.3 - 0.4 m s -1 . Overall, the correlation between changes and peak REMS winds is moderate, with high wind events associated with changes in some cases, but not in others, suggesting that other factors are also at work. The distribution of REMS 1 Hz wind speeds show a tail up to the 20 m s -1 , showing that even higher speed winds occur. Non-aeolian triggering mechanisms are also possible. The low activity period at the dunes documented by Curiosity provides clues to processes that dominated in the Martian past under conditions of lower obliquity.