Measurement of Titan’s surface permittivity with the DraGMet/DIEL sensor on Dragonfly

<p>Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, is an ocean world, covered by organic materials and therefore one of the most promising astrobiological target in the Solar System, likely holding clues on the origin of life on Earth. That is why NASA has selected the Dragonfly mission to send in 2027 a rotorcraft lander to Titan and investigate its prebiotic chemistry and habitability.</p> <p> </p> <p>Making multiple flights (up to 24 in 2.5 years, starting in 2034), Dragonfly will explore a variety of locations, from the Shangri-La dune field to the rim of the young impact crater Selk (Lorenz et al., 2018), and therefore sample materials and determine surface properties in different geologic settings. The two permittivity probes - called DIEL- on board the Geophysical and Meteorological package (DraGMet) will be especially useful to characterize Dragonfly landing site environment.</p> <p> </p> <p>DIEL<strong> </strong>consist of 2 electrodes acting as self-impedance permittivity probes. They will be mounted on each skid of the Dragonfly rotorcraft and operate independently for sake of redundancy and safety. Their objective is to measure the complex ground permittivity at several low frequencies (<10 kHz) which will provide clues on the composition, moisture and porosity of the near-subsurface of Titan as well as on the spatial and temporal variations of such properties. As a reminder, the first permittivity probe on Titan (actually the first ever planetary permittivity probe) successfully determined the complex permittivity of the Huygens landing site in 2005 (Grard et al, 2006; Hamelin et al. 2016).</p> <p> </p> <p>During this presentation, we will describe the tests that have been performed on prototypes of the DIEL electrode plates in order to estimate their sounding depth and sensitivity to composition variations. Tests were performed e.g., with the electrode lying on reference plastic slabs and natural materials (air, sand, soil, liquid water, etc.) of well-known complex permittivity, at ambient and Titan temperatures. The effect of porosity and of a bad ground-electrode contact was also investigated leading to suggestions to optimize DIEL electrode design, accommodation and performance.</p> <p> </p> <p>Indeed, the design of the DIEL experiments (size, shape, accommodation of the electrodes, modes of operation ect.) is not frozen yet and we are also conducting modelling simulations with COMSOL Multiphysics © to explore possible better designs and confirm the results obtained in laboratory.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lastly, in order to relate DIEL measurements to the ground composition, it is crucial to know the electrical properties of materials relevant to Titan’s surface. This is the purpose of the PAP (Permittivité d’Analogues Planétaires) measurement bench that have been developed at LATMOS. This bench includes a cryostat to perform measurements at Titan’s temperature (90 K). It was successfully used to investigate the complex permittivity of analogs of Titan’s organic aerosols called “tholins” (Lethuillier et al., 2018). Future measurements will focus on “eroded” tholins, that is tholins that have been modified during their descent to the surface by processes analogous to those at play in Titan’s atmosphere: UV radiations (Carrasco et al., 2018), interaction with ionosphere’s charged particles (Chatain et al., 2020), deposition of ice in the low stratosphere (Fleury et al., 2019; Dubois et al., 2020), wetting by droplets of liquid methane in the troposphere etc.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p>Beghin et al., <em>Icarus</em> 218 (2012)</p> <p>Carrasco et al., Nature Astronomy, Nature Publishing Group (2018)</p> <p>Chatain et al., Icarus 345 (2020)</p> <p>Dubois et al., Icarus 338 (2016)</p> <p>Hamelin et al., Icarus 270 (2016)</p> <p>Grard et al., Planet. Space Sciences 54 (2006)</p> <p>Fleury et al., Icarus 321 (2019)</p> <p>Lethuillier et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics 519 (2018)</p> <p>Lorenz et al., <em>Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest</em> 34 (2018)</p> <p> </p>

Creating a Diamond Open Access community journal for Seismology and Earthquake Science

On 24 November 2020, the Springer Nature publishing group announced the introduction of Open Access (OA) articles in Nature and its sibling journals. The corresponding OA publication fee (charged directly to the authors) was set to €9,500/$11,390/£8,290, an amount that may be well out of reach for many researchers. This is especially a problem for researchers in developing countries, early-career researchers on small, personal fellowships, and researchers between positions. Employers and funding agencies are increasingly requiring that research be published under an OA license, forcing authors to accept the high publication fees, who are not always financially supported.The high cost of these and similar OA fees for other Earth Science journals prompted a discussion among the seismological community on Twitter, during which the idea was raised to start a free-to-publish, free-to-read journal for seismological research. The concept of Diamond Open Access was already adopted by Volcanica (www.jvolcanica.org) for volcanological research, providing a precedent and motivation for similar initiatives (like Seismica, but also Tektonika for the structural geology community). Following community discussions on Slack with over 100 participants, a small “task force” was formed to investigate in detail the possibility of starting a Diamond OA seismology journal, adopting Volcanica as a model. Here we detail the results of the exploration performed by the task force, with the aim of synthesizing a set of key requirements and corresponding actions to launch a Diamond OA journal in seismology and earthquake science, including scope definition, community engagement, and partnership with a library or other institutions. This document presents ideas and discussions while starting Seismica from November 2020 to July 2021, which may serve as a guideline but might not reflect the final stage of Seismica.

The Seismica initiative: a community-led Diamond Open Access journal for seismological research

<p>On 24 November 2020, the Springer Nature publishing group announced the introduction of Open Access (OA) journals in Nature and its sibling journals. The corresponding OA publication fee (charged directly to the authors) was set to €9,500/$11,390/£8,290, an amount that may be well out of reach for researchers with limited financial means. This is especially a problem for researchers in developing countries, and for early-career researchers on small, personal fellowships. Funding agencies often demand that research be published under an OA license, forcing authors to accept the high publication fees.</p><p>The high cost of these and similar OA fees for other Earth science journals prompted a discussion among the seismological community on Twitter, during which the idea was raised to start a free-to-publish, free-to-read journal for seismological research. The concept of Diamond Open Access was previously adopted by Volcanica (www.jvolcanica.org) for volcanological research, providing a precedent and directives for similar initiatives (like Seismica, but also Tektonika for the structural geology community). Following the community discussion on Slack with over 100 participants, a small "task force" was formed to investigate in detail the possibility of starting a Diamond OA seismology journal, taking Volcanica as a model. In this contribution, we report the progress that has been made by the task force and the seismological community in the conceptualisation of the journal, and the steps that remain to be taken. Once the initiation of the journal is completed, Seismica will offer a platform for researchers to publish and access peer-reviewed work with no financial barriers, promoting seismological research in an inclusive manner. We invite all interested members of the seismological and earthquake community to participate in the discussions and development of this OA journal, by contacting the authors listed on this abstract.</p>

Vector competence of Culex mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Zika virus transmission: an integrative review

Objective. To identify studies on the competence of Culex mosquitoes as vectors for the transmission of Zika virus (ZIKV) around the globe. Methods. We performed an integrative review to identify relevant articles on specific experiments to determine whether Culex mosquitoes are vectors for ZIKV. The sources we used for our research were the Brazilian Periódicos CAPES electronic portal (MEDLINE/PubMed, ScienceDirect Journals, Nature Publishing Group, SciELO, Springer Link, and 250 other databases) and gray literature. Results. We identified 344 studies, of which 36 were considered for this review. In 8 studies, infection in salivary glands of Culex quinquefasciatus, Culex restuans, Culex tarsalis, and Culex coronator was detected. Cx. quinquefasciatus was the most studied among those confirmed as potential ZIKV vectors, and only strains of Asian lineages (THA/2014/SV0127-14; SZ01 (2016)) and American lineages (BRPE243 (2015); PRVABC59 (2015)) can infect the salivary glands of Culex mosquitoes. The tested African strains (MR766 and DAK AR 41525) were unable to infect salivary glands. Conclusions. There is still a lack of compelling evidence that indicates Culex spp. are a competent ZIKV vector, but they should remain a target for further monitoring studies, especially regarding ZIKV transmission to other species. Furthermore, studies should not be limited to studying whether their salivary glands are infected.

Hình ảnh không gian và văn hóa khoa học Phenikaa University

Ngày thứ nhất là 10-10, kỷ niệm Giải phóng Thủ đô Hà Nội. Và ngày thứ hai là 14-11, ra mắt thương hiệu mới, sau gần một năm tròn kể từ khi mang tên trường Đại học Phenikaa, và bắt đầu quá trình đầu tư, đổi mới từ cơ sở vật chất, tới bộ máy quản lý và đội ngũ giảng viên - nghiên cứu viên. Đóng góp của ISR là hai bài trên hệ thống xuất bản Nature Publishing Group.

Article delivery using ReadCube Access: a report on use in five US libraries

Purpose – This paper aims to update information on ReadCube Access and briefly reviews its history. The study also reports on the use of ReadCube Access by five US academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach – A series of questions was distributed to selected academic libraries using ReadCube Access. Survey recipients were asked to describe the library and the institution served, how long ReadCube Access has been in use, how many journals from Nature Publishing Group (NPG) were licensed and how many journals were being provided using ReadCube Access. Participating libraries were also asked to provide information about the purchase options offered to end-users, were asked to report on ReadCube Access usage and were requested to compare that usage to interlibrary loan (ILL) requests for NPG journals. Finally, the libraries were asked to share any comments about ReadCube Access they wished, including end user feedback and comments from library staff. Findings – ReadCube Access is shown to be cost-effective and more heavily used than interlibrary loan. End-users are enthused by the instantaneous delivery of articles, and most libraries are generally pleased with the sustainability of this unmediated service. Some end-users are confused and annoyed by the differences in using ReadCube Access compared with the familiar use of subscriptions. A failing of ReadCube Access is that it only offers content from one publisher. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need for an update on ReadCube Access and a study on the experiences of various libraries using it.