Preservation of organic matter in mound-forming coral skeletons

This study demonstrates that intracrystalline organic matter in coral skeletons is well preserved over century timescales. The extent of preservation of organic matter in coral skeletons was investigated by measuring total organic carbon (TOC), total hydrolyzable amino acid (THAA), chloropigment, and lipid concentrations in 0-300 year old annual growth bands from Montastraea annularis (Florida Keys) and Porites lutea (Red Sea). Organic matter intrinsic to the calcium carbonate mineral (intracrystalline) was analyzed separately from total skeletal organic matter. The Red Sea coral had less TOC (0.02-0.04 wt%) than the Florida Keys coral (0.04-0.11 wt%), but a higher percent of intracrystalline organic matter in all annual bands measured. Carbon in the form of THAA, most likely from mineral-precipitating proteins, contributed 30-45% of the TOC in both corals. Carbon in lipids represented about 3% of the TOC in the coral skeletons. Chlorophyll-a and b were present in annual bands where endolithic algae were present, but these compounds were minor contributors to TOC. The distribution of specific organic compounds showed that organic matter was well preserved throughout the time period sampled in both the total and intracrystalline pools. Variations in THAA were not correlated with TOC over time, suggesting that organic matter that is involved in biomineralization, like amino acids, may be deposited in response to different environmental factors than are other components of skeletal organic matter. Differences in the quantity and composition of organic matter between the two corals investigated here were assessed using principal components analysis and suggest that location, species and skeletal structure may all influence organic matter content and possibly the degree of physical protection of organic matter by the coral skeleton. Further, our study suggests that intracrystalline organic matter may be better protected from diagenesis than non-intracrystalline organic matter and may therefore be a more reliable source of organic matter for paleoceanographic studies than total skeletal organic matter.     

Mössbauer studies of iron silicate spinel at high pressure

We have measured in situ Mössbauer transmission spectra of iron silicate spinel (γ-Fe₂SiO₄) in a diamond anvil cell at room temperature and pressures up to 16 GPa. The observed spectra show a doublet characteristic of the paramagnetic state. The isomer shift and quadrupole splitting at atmospheric pressure are 1.10 and 2.63 mm/s, respectively, which are smaller than those of fayalite (α-Fe₂SiO₄). Both the isomer shift and quadrupole splitting decrease linearly with pressure with slope of ?0.003(1) and ?0.020(1) mm/sec · GPa, respectively. This simple linear trend suggests that no electronic or polymorphic transitions occur under 16 GPa except for those due to the small and continuous changes of volume and local symmetry under pressure. On the basis of a crystalline field calculation, the negative pressure derivative of the quadrupole splitting is associated with a trend towards an ideal cubic symmetry of the oxygen sublattice.     

Resonant tidal disruption in galactic nuclei

It has recently been shown by Rauch 38 Tremaine that the rate of angular momentum relaxation in nearly Keplerian star clusters is greatly increased by a process termed 'resonant relaxation'; it was also argued, via a series of scaling arguments, that tidal disruption of stars in galactic nuclei containing massive black holes could be noticeably enhanced by this process. We describe here the results of numerical simulations of resonant tidal disruption which quantitatively test the predictions made by Rauch 38 Tremaine. The simulation method is based on an N -body routine incorporating cloning of stars near the loss cone and a semirelativistic symplectic integration scheme. Normalized disruption rates for resonant and non-resonant nuclei are derived at orbital energies both above and below the critical energy, and the corresponding angular momentum distribution functions are found. The black hole mass above which resonant tidal disruption is quenched by relativistic precession is determined. We also briefly describe the discovery of chaos in the Wisdom–Holman symplectic integrator applied to highly eccentric orbits and propose a modified integration scheme that remains robust under these conditions. We find that resonant disruption rates exceed their non-resonant counterparts by an amount consistent with the predictions; in particular, we estimate the net tidal disruption rate for a fully resonant cluster to be about twice that of its non-resonant counterpart. No significant enhancement in rates is observed outside the critical radius. Relativistic quenching of the effect is found to occur for hole masses M  >  M _Q  = (8 ± 3) × 10⁷  M . The numerical results combined with the observed properties of galactic nuclei indicate that for most galaxies the resonant enhancement to tidal disruption rates will be very small.     

Observations on temporal red shift of wheat from multi-date spaceborne MOS-B spectrometer data

High spectral resolution spectroscopy enables to have detailed information on chemical and morphological status of crop. An attempt of using space platform for detecting red edge shift during different growth stages of wheat crop is reported. Study was conducted during rabi 1996–97 season using Modular Opto-Electronic Scanner MOS-B Imaging data onboard IRS-P3 satellite. Inverted Gaussian model was fitted for satellite derived reflectances between 650 and 870 nm to derive inflection wavelength and its subsequent change with crop stages i.e. red shift. Red shift of 10 nm observed from crown root initiation stage (703.8 nm) to peak vegetative stage (714.2 nm). A comparative study on temporal behaviour of vegetative indices like NDVI and ARVI with Red edge showed that latter is more atmospherically stable parameter. It is concluded that red edge shift which hitherto has been observed from ground and airborne sensors, can also be detected from space.     

Organic matter diagenesis in shallow water carbonate sediments

Muddy carbonate deposits near the Dry Tortugas, Florida, are characterized by high organic carbon remineralization rates. However, approximately half of the total sedimentary organic matter potentially supporting remineralization is occluded in CaCO₃ minerals (intracrystalline). While a portion of nonintracrystalline organic matter appears to cycle rapidly, intracrystalline organic matter has an approximately constant concentration with depth, suggesting that as long as its protective mineral matrix is intact, it is not readily remineralized. Organic matter in excess of intracrystalline organic matter that is preserved may have a variety of mineral associations (e.g., intercrystalline, adsorbed or detrital). In surface sediment, aspartic acid contributed ∼22 mole % and ∼50 mole % to nonintracrystalline and intracrystalline pools, respectively. In deeper sediment (1.6-1.7m), the composition of hydrolyzable amino acids in both pools was similar (aspartic acid ∼40 mole %). Like amino acids, intracrystalline and nonintracrystalline fatty acids have different compositions in surface sediments, but are indistinguishable at depth. These data suggest that preserved organic matter in the nonintracrystalline pool is stabilized by its interactions with CaCO₃. Neutral lipids are present in very low abundances in the intracrystalline pool and are extensively degraded in both the intracrystalline and nonintracrystalline pools, suggesting that mineral interactions do not protect these compounds from degradation. The presence of chlorophyll-a, but absence of phytol, in the intracrystalline lipid pool demonstrates that chloropigments are present only in the nonintracrystalline pool. Sedimentary chloropigments decrease with depth at similar rates in Dry Tortugas sediments as found in alumino-silicate sediments from the Long Island Sound, suggesting that chloropigment degradation is largely unaffected by mineral interactions. Overall, however, inclusion and protection of organic matter by biominerals is a major pathway for organic matter preservation in this low-organic carbon, biomineral-rich regime.     

Radar map of Venus at 3.8 cm wavelength

Radar echoes from Venus have been mapped at a wavelength of 3.8 cm from approximately 270° to 10° in longitude and ?50° to +50° in latitude during the inferior conjunctions of 1969 and 1972. Observations made in April 1969 and again in June 1972 both show the same regions of high reflectivity as well as several large regions of low reflectivity.     

电子束CT三维重建技术与颅颌面外科

目的 探讨电子束CT三维重建技术在颅颌面外科的适应症和应用价值。方法 采用美国Imatron公司的电子束CT(electron beam CT,以下简称EBCT)C-150,对76例严重颅颌面病人实行薄层CT容积扫描。将所获CT图象经数字接口传至加拿大ISG公司生产的Allegro工作站进行三维重建。结果EBCT成像技术能立体的、详尽和精确的显示机体组织三维解剖结构极其相互关系。其再现畸形或病体模型的程度可以达到近乎解剖学的精度,为准确了解和掌握病情并制定合理的手术治疗计划提供了极为重要的依据,提高了手术治疗效果。结论EBCT三维重建技术是现代颅颌面外科最主要的诊断方法之一并具有重要的临床应用价值。     

Upper limit on the radar cross section of the comet Kohoutek

An attempt to observe radar echoes from the comet Kohoutek was made at a radio frequency of 7840 MHz (λ ～- 3.8 cm) on 12 January 1974 using the Haystack Observatory radar in Massachusetts. A search for an echo over a range of band-widths covering 2Hz to 66kHz yielded no positive result. The upper limit on the radar cross section is therefore approximately $\text{10}{}^4\text{B}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{km}{}^2$, where B is the (unknown) bandwidth of the echo in Hertz. For $\text{B ? 100}\text{Hz}$, it follows that (i) the nucleus, if a perfect spherical reflector, must be less than 250 km in diameter, and (ii) the density of any millimeter-sized particles must be less than 1m^?3 for a coma of diameter 10⁴km.