Environmental Assessment in the Pre-launch Phase of Hayabusa2 for Safety Declaration of Returned Samples From Asteroid (162173) Ryugu: Background Monitoring of Possible Contaminants During Development of the Sampler System

We report the ground-based environmental assessments during development of the sampler system until the launch of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We conducted static monitoring of potential contaminants to assess the environmental cleanliness during (1) laboratory work throughout the development and manufacturing of the sampler devices, (2) installation of the sampler system on the spacecraft, and (3) transportation to the launch site at the JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center. Major elements and ions detected in our inorganic analysis were sodium (Na), potassium (K), and ionized chloride (Cl–); those were positively correlated with the total organic content and with exposure duration in the range from 101 to 103 nanogram per monitor coupon within a ~30 mm-diameter scale. We confirmed that deposits on the coupon were totally less than the microgram-scale order during manufacturing, installation, and transportation in the pre-launch phase. The present assessment yields a nominal safety declaration for sample analysis of the pristine sample (>5 g) returned from asteroid (162173) Ryugu combined with a highly clean environmental background level. We expect that the Hayabusa2-returned sample from Ryugu without severe and/or unknown contamination will allow us to provide native profiles recorded in the carbonaceous asteroid history.

Revamping the Environment for National Development: A Lexico-Semantic Reading of Niyi Osundare’s The Eye of the Earth

Environmental poetry is relatively young in the literature of the Nigerian literary writers and critics. Literary scholars of an earlier generation before Osundare – Soyinka, Okigbo, and Okara have dwelt more on the themes and language of cultural heritage, cultural conflicts, colonial and post-colonial political, socio-economic and religious issues. They barely scratched around the themes of environment and ecology. More so, their language may be adjudged obscure and esoteric. Therefore, the present study engages in the exploration of Osundare’s innovative and full-scale venture into pivotal issues of the environment that have become of utmost concern nationally and internationally in contemporary times. Also of interest in this study is Osundare’s efforts to redefine the diction of Nigerian poetry to reach a wider audience. Osundare’s poetry collection, The Eye of the Earth is our focal text. It has been observed that critical studies on this collection are largely centered on literary interpretations. Lexico-semantic exploration of this collection can be considered inadequate, which necessitated the present study to strike a balance in deciphering Osundare’s language and thematic preoccupations. This study is anchored on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and eco-criticism theory with insights from lexical-semantic theory. Poems of environmental background are purposively selected from the collection. The study reveals Osundare’s tactical manipulation of “common” language in exposing man’s pernicious activities in the natural environment. In a similar manipulative skill in language use, the study unveils consequential roles imperative for a man to obviate his adverse activities on nature in order to achieve development at different spheres of life.

Lignification of xylem of different birch species during introduction in the Nizhny Novgorod region

Интродукция как одна из традиционных в лесном хозяйстве сфер практической деятельности сохраняет свою актуальность и на современном этапе. Обладая широким спектром полезных признаков и свойств, представители рода берёза (Betula L.) подвергаются разноплановым исследованиям. Цель данного исследования являлось получение сравнительной оценки различных видов, входящих в таксономическую систему рода берёза, по степени лигнификации ксилемы. Объектом исследования служили посадки 10 видов берёзы, представленных в интродукционной коллекции ботанического сада Нижегородского государственного университета им. Н.И. Лобачевского. Предметом исследования являлась изменчивость степени лигнификации ксилемы у интродуцированных и аборигенного видов берёзы. Первичной единицей выборки в опыте принят однократный учет временных препаратов поперечных срезов из средней части годичного прироста, которые после окрашивания и фиксации визировали с помощью микроскопа Микмед-2. Одревеснение клетчатки в стенках клеток ксилемы выявляли с помощью качественной реакции флороглюцина на лигнин. Дополнительно был произведен опытный анализ сроков опадания листвы у исследуемых объектов. В ходе анализа степени лигнификации клеток ксилемы в годичных побегах видов берёзы, в пределах опытного участка, установлена их неоднородность по значениям изучаемых показателей вне зависимости от видовой принадлежности. Минимальное число неодревесневших клеток ксилемы свидетельствовало о большей степени подготовленности растений к неблагоприятному зимнему периоду и более раннему опаданию листвы. Различия проявились на выровненном экологическом фоне в условиях Нижегородской области и подтверждены результатами однофакторного и двухфакторного дисперсионного анализа. Introduction as one of the traditional areas of practical activity in forestry remains relevant at the present stage. Having a wide range of useful features and properties, representatives of the genus birch (Betula L.) are subject to diverse research. The purpose of this study was to obtain a comparative assessment of various species included in the taxonomic system of the genus birch, according to the degree of lignification of xylem. The object of the study was the planting of 10 species of birch presented in the introduction collection of the Botanical garden of Nizhny Novgorod state University. N.I. Lobachevsky. The subject of the study was the variability of the degree of xylem lignification in introduced and native birch species. The primary sampling unit in the experiment was a one-time recording of temporary preparations of cross-sections from the average part of the annual growth, which, after staining and fixation, were viewed using a Micmed-2 microscope. Lignification of fiber in the walls of xylem cells was detected using a qualitative reaction of phloroglucin to lignin. Additionally, an experimental analysis of the timing of leaf fall in the studied objects was performed. During the analysis of the degree of lignification of xylem cells in annual shoots of birch species within the experimental area, their heterogeneity in the values of the studied indicators was established, regardless of the species. The minimal number of non-woody xylem cells indicated that the plants were more prepared for the unfavorable winter period and earlier leaf fall. The differences were revealed against a leveled environmental background in the Nizhny Novgorod region and were confirmed by the results of one-factor and two-factor analysis of variance.

Automated Chicken Counting in Surveillance Camera Environments Based on the Point Supervision Algorithm: LC-DenseFCN

The density of a chicken population has a great influence on the health and growth of the chickens. For free-range chicken producers, an appropriate population density can increase their economic benefit and be utilized for estimating the economic value of the flock. However, it is very difficult to calculate the density of chickens quickly and accurately because of the complicated environmental background and the dynamic number of chickens. Therefore, we propose an automated method for quickly and accurately counting the number of chickens on a chicken farm, rather than doing so manually. The contributions of this paper are twofold: (1) we innovatively designed a full convolutional network—DenseFCN—and counted the chickens in an image using the method of point supervision, which achieved an accuracy of 93.84% and 9.27 frames per second (FPS); (2) the point supervision method was used to detect the density of chickens. Compared with the current mainstream object detection method, the higher effectiveness of this method was proven. From the performance evaluation of the algorithm, the proposed method is practical for measuring the density statistics of chickens in a farm environment and provides a new feasible tool for the density estimation of farm poultry breeding.

Tunable Thermal Camouflage Based on GST Plasmonic Metamaterial

Thermal radiation control has attracted increasing attention in a wide range of field, including infrared detection, radiative cooling, thermal management, and thermal camouflage. Previously reported thermal emitters for thermal camouflage presented disadvantages of lacking either tunability or thermal stability. In this paper, we propose a tunable thermal emitter consisting of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic metamaterial based on phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) to realize tunable control of thermal radiation in wavelength ranges from 3 μm to 14 μm. Meanwhile, the proposed thermal emitter possesses near unity emissivity at the wavelength of 6.3 μm to increase radiation heat dissipation, maintaining the thermal stability of the system. The underlying mechanism relies on fundamental magnetic resonance and the interaction between the high-order magnetic resonance and anti-reflection resonance. When the environmental background is blackbody, the tunable emitter maintains signal reduction rates greater than 80% in middle-IR and longer-IR regions from 450 K to 800 K and from room temperature to 800 K, respectively. The dependences of thermal camouflage on crystallization fraction of GST, incident angles and polarization angles have been investigated in detail. In addition, the thermal emitter can continuously realize thermal camouflage for various background temperatures and environmental background in atmospheric window in the range of 3–5 μm.

Exposure of Humans to Attacks by Deer Keds and Consequences of Their Bites—A Case Report with Environmental Background

Insects of the genus Lipoptena, e.g., Lipoptena cervi and Lipoptena fortisetosa, are hematophagic ectoparasites mainly attacking deer, roe deer, moose, horses, and cattle. Humans may also be incidental hosts for these insects. The species are vectors of numerous pathogens, including Bartonella schoenbuchensis, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Due to the short time of feeding on humans, usually painless bites, and an initially small trace at the site of the bite, the symptoms reported by the patient may not be associated with deer ked infestation and infection with pathogens transmitted by these arthropods. The aim of the study was to describe the consequences of L. cervi bites in humans with detailed documentation of the development of skin lesions. The knowledge about skin lesions arising after deer ked bites may be useful in clinical practice for monitoring patients for the presence of pathogens transmitted by the parasites.