Molecular Basis to Integrate Microgravity Signals into the Photoperiodic Flowering Pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana under Spaceflight Condition

Understanding the effects of spaceflight on plant flowering regulation is important to setup a life support system for long-term human space exploration. However, the way in which plant flowering is affected by spaceflight remains unclear. Here, we present results from our latest space experiments on the Chinese spacelab Tiangong-2, in which Arabidopsis wild-type and transgenic plants pFT::GFP germinated and grew as normally as their controls on the ground, but the floral initiation under the long-day condition in space was about 20 days later than their controls on the ground. Time-course series of digital images of pFT::GFP plants showed that the expression rhythm of FT in space did not change, but the peak appeared later in comparison with those of their controls on the ground. Whole-genome microarray analysis revealed that approximately 16% of Arabidopsis genes at the flowering stage changed their transcript levels under spaceflight conditions in comparison with their controls on the ground. The GO terms were enriched in DEGs with up-regulation of the response to temperature, wounding, and protein stabilization and down-regulation of the function in circadian rhythm, gibberellins, and mRNA processes. FT and SOC1 could act as hubs to integrate spaceflight stress signals into the photoperiodic flowering pathway in Arabidopsis in space.

Characterization of Structural Defects in (Cd,Zn)Te Crystals Grown by the Travelling Heater Method

Structural defects and compositional uniformity remain the major problems affecting the performance of (Cd, Zn)Te (CZT) based detector devices. Understanding the mechanism of growth and defect formation is therefore fundamental to improving the crystal quality. In this frame, space experiments for the growth of CZT by the Travelling Heater Method (THM) under microgravity are scheduled. A detailed ground-based program was performed to determine experimental parameters and three CZT crystals were grown by the THM. The structural defects, compositional homogeneity and resistivity of these ground-based crystals were investigated. A ZnTe content variation was observed at the growth interface and a high degree of stress associated with extensive dislocation networks was induced, which propagated into the grown crystal region according to the birefringence and X-ray White Beam Topography (XWBT) results. By adjusting the growth parameters, the ZnTe variations and the resulting stress were efficiently reduced. In addition, it was revealed that large inclusions and grain boundaries can generate a high degree of stress, leading to the formation of dislocation slip bands and subgrain boundaries. The dominant defects, including grain boundaries, dislocation networks and cracks in the interior of crystals, led to the resistivity variation in the crystals. The bulk resistivity of the as-grown crystals ranged from 109 Ωcm to 1010 Ωcm.

Precision engineering for ultra-cold atoms and space experiments

Οι υπερ-ψυχρές τεχνολογίες ατόμων υπόσχονται σημαντικές βελτιώσεις στους τομείς της ανίχνευσης, της επικοινωνίας, της κβαντικής προσομοίωσης και του υπολογισμού. Για να αξιοποιηθούν πλήρως οι δυνατότητές τους, πρέπει να αναπτυχθούν πολλές νέες τεχνολογίες. Σε αυτή τη διατριβή επικεντρώνομαι σε τρεις από αυτές: την μηχανική ακρίβειας των κυματοδηγών, την μηχανική ακριβείας της κατάστασης εισόδου του αισθητήρα και τις εξαιρετικά σταθερές και στιβαρές τεχνολογίες για διαστημικές αποστολές. Αυτές οι τρεις κύριες προκλήσεις του πεδίου διερευνώνται σε αυτήν την εργασία. Αρχικά, διερευνώ τα όρια της χωρίς διέγερση μεταφοράς συμπυκνωμάτων Bose-Einstein (BECs) και υπερ-ψυχρών ατομικών νεφών σε κυματοδηγούς μαγνητικού πεδίου (TAAP) με σχήμα δακτυλίου εισάγοντας τεχνητά εμπόδια. Παρατηρείται μια ευρεία περιοχή όπου δεν υπάρχει διέγερση μέχρι την τιμή ενός κατωφλίου, όπου παρατηρείται απότομη αύξηση της διέγερσης του ατομικού νέφους. Παρουσιάζω επίσης μια ακριβή και απλή μέθοδο ανίχνευσης, με μόνο σφάλμα 1% στη μέτρηση του αριθμού των ατόμων. Αυτό αποτελεί βελτίωση περίπου 10 φορές στην ακρίβεια της πειραματικής μας ακολουθίας. Η μέθοδος έχει τη δυνατότητα να εφαρμοστεί ως ελάχιστα καταστρεπτική τεχνική μέτρησης για την κβαντική κατάσταση και τη θερμοκρασία του υπερ-ψυχρού νέφους. Τέλος, αναπτύχθηκε μια συμβατή με το διάστημα σύζευξη οπτικών ινών. Επιτεύχθηκε υψηλή απόδοση σύζευξης της τάξης του 94% και διακυμάνσεις μικρότερες από 1% παρουσία διακυμάνσεων στην θερμοκρασία και κραδασμών. Αυτές οι επιδείξεις ανοίγουν το δρόμο προς την πραγματοποίηση πρακτικών συσκευών που βασίζονται σε υπέρψυχρα νέφη. Στα πλαίσια της εργασίας σχεδιάστηκαν και δημιουργήθηκαν προσαρμοσμένες ηλεκτρονικές διατάξεις και λογισμικό.

Parametric Interaction of VLF and ELF Waves in the Ionosphere

In this Chapter we analyze a non-linear parametric interaction between Very Low Frequency (VLF) and Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) waves in the ionosphere. We demonstrate that nonlinear parametric coupling between quasi-electrostatic Lower Oblique Resonance (LOR) and ELF waves significantly contributes to the VLF electromagnetic whistler wave spectrum. Analytical and numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained during active space experiments and satellite data. These data clearly show that presence of VLF waves in the region of plasmasphere boundary layer, where there are no injected due to substorm/storm activity energetic electrons with energies of tens keV can strongly affect the radiation belt boundary.

Multirobot Formation with Sensor Fusion-Based Localization in Unknown Environment

Multirobot cooperation enhancing the efficiency of numerous applications such as maintenance, rescue, inspection in cluttered unknown environments is the interesting topic recently. However, designing a formation strategy for multiple robots which enables the agents to follow the predefined master robot during navigation actions without a prebuilt map is challenging due to the uncertainties of self-localization and motion control. In this paper, we present a multirobot system to form the symmetrical patterns effectively within the unknown environment deployed randomly. To enable self-localization during group formatting, we propose the sensor fusion system leveraging sensor fusion from the ultrawideband-based positioning system, Inertial Measurement Unit orientation system, and wheel encoder to estimate robot locations precisely. Moreover, we propose a global path planning algorithm considering the kinematic of the robot’s action inside the workspace as a metric space. Experiments are conducted on a set of robots called Falcon with a conventional four-wheel skid steering schematic as a case study to validate our proposed path planning technique. The outcome of our trials shows that the proposed approach produces exact robot locations after sensor fusion with the feasible formation tracking of multiple robots system on the simulated and real-world experiments.

Modeling Complementarity in Behavior Data with Multi-Type Itemset Embedding

People are looking for complementary contexts, such as team members of complementary skills for project team building and/or reading materials of complementary knowledge for effective student learning, to make their behaviors more likely to be successful. Complementarity has been revealed by behavioral sciences as one of the most important factors in decision making. Existing computational models that learn low-dimensional context representations from behavior data have poor scalability and recent network embedding methods only focus on preserving the similarity between the contexts. In this work, we formulate a behavior entry as a set of context items and propose a novel representation learning method, Multi-type Itemset Embedding , to learn the context representations preserving the itemset structures. We propose a measurement of complementarity between context items in the embedding space. Experiments demonstrate both effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method over the state-of-the-art methods on behavior prediction and context recommendation. We discover that the complementary contexts and similar contexts are significantly different in human behaviors.

Experimental Investigation of Thermal Diffusion in Binary and Ternary Hydrocarbon Mixtures

In a multi-component liquid mixture, the process of disassociation of the components induced by thermal gradient is called thermal diffusion or Soret effect. This effect plays a crucial role in separation of the components in hydrocarbon mixtures of oil. Accordingly, the main goal of this study is to experimentally investigate the Soret effect in binary and ternary hydrocarbon mixtures. Optical interferometry technique with Mach-Zehnder scheme was used to conduct the experiments. The interferometry techniques are not intrusive and the separation of the components in the mixture is not affected by the measurement instrument. A Soret cell is defined as a cubic cavity where the sample mixture is placed in it and, the separation of the components takes place in the cell by heating it from the above. Soret cells are used in convectionless experiments and natural convections are undesirable. The Soret cell used in space experiments was re-designed and optimized for ground-based experiments to avoid the natural convections. Computational studies were made on the both cells to obtain the temperature and velocity fields. Then a set of thermal diffusion experiments conducted in order to compare the performance of the cells. The results shows that the induced convective motions in the second cell are significantly weaker than those in the previous cell which is desirable. In the next step, the effect of the inclination of the cell on the thermal diffusion was studied. First numerical analysis was made to find the velocity and temperature fields in different inclinations and then a set of experiments was performed and the concentration distribution of the components in a binary mixture in different inclinations of the cell was found. Finally, ground based experiments were performed to study the thermal diffusion in five ternary hydrocarbon mixtures. Optical interferometry with Mach-Zehnder scheme using two laser sources with different wavelengths was used. The Soret information of one of the mixtures is available in the literature and this mixture was studied here to validate the present experimental setup. The temperature and concentration of the mixtures were measured successfully in the Soret cell and a table of the measured Soret coefficient were provided.