Understanding the Formation of Saturn's Regular Moons in the Context of Giant Planet Moons Formation Scenarios.

This article explores the different formation scenarios of the Kronian moons system in the context of a highly dissipative Saturn, with the objective of identifying the most likely of these scenarios. First, we review the diversity of objects - moons and rings - orbiting solar system giant planets, and the diversity of their architectures, which formation scenarios must reproduce. We then identify in this broader context the specific features of the Saturn system, such as the particularly large spectrum of its moon masses, the uniqueness of Titan and the presence of both dense and tenuous rings, before discussing the applicability of the different giant planet moon formation scenarios to the Saturn case.

Layover start timing predicts layover sleep quantity and timing on long-range and ultra-long-range trips.

Study Objectives: Airline transport pilot sleep during layover is an important factor for alertness on subsequent flights. Assessing pilots' sleep on layover is an important first step in helping them obtain the most recuperative sleep possible on layover. Here, we investigate the quantity and timing of sleep during layovers and determine predictors for layover sleep.

The International Space Station has a unique and extreme microbial and chemical environment driven by use patterns.

Space habitation provides unique challenges in built environments isolated from Earth. We produced a 3D map of the microbes and metabolites throughout the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) of the International Space Station (ISS) with 803 samples collected during space flight, including controls. We find that the use of each of the nine sampled modules within the ISS strongly drives the microbiology and chemistry of the habitat.

Integrating phenomic selection using single-kernel near-infrared spectroscopy and genomic selection for corn breeding improvement.

Phenomic selection using intact seeds is a promising tool to improve gain and complement genomic selection in corn breeding. Models that combine genomic and phenomic data maximize the predictive ability. Phenomic selection (PS) is a cost-effective method proposed for predicting complex traits and enhancing genetic gain in breeding programs.

Infrared Cooling in an Anharmonic Cascade Framework: 2-Cyanoindene, the Smallest Cyano-PAH Identified in Taurus Molecular Cloud-1.

Infrared (IR) cooling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules is a major radiative stabilization mechanism of PAHs present in space and is the origin of the aromatic infrared bands (AIBs). Here, we report an anharmonic cascade model in a master equation framework to model IR emission rates and emission spectra of energized PAHs as a function of internal energy. The underlying (simple harmonic cascade) framework for fundamental vibrations has been developed through the modeling of cooling rates of PAH cations and other carboneaous ions measured in electrostatic ion storage ring experiments performed under "molecular cloud in a box" conditions.

Applying Gaussian Process Machine Learning and Modern Probabilistic Programming to Satellite Data to Infer CO Emissions.

Satellite data provides essential insights into the spatiotemporal distribution of CO concentrations. However, many atmospheric inverse models fail to adequately incorporate the spatial and temporal correlations inherent in satellite observations and often lack rigorous methods for estimating parameters like spatial length scales. We introduce an inference model that processes the spatiotemporal covariance in satellite data and estimates hyperparameters such as covariance length scales.

Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu.

Organic matter in meteorites reveals clues about early Solar System chemistry and the origin of molecules important to life, but terrestrial exposure complicates interpretation. Samples returned from the B-type asteroid Bennu by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer mission enabled us to study pristine carbonaceous astromaterial without uncontrolled exposure to Earth's biosphere. Here we show that Bennu samples are volatile rich, with more carbon, nitrogen and ammonia than samples from asteroid Ryugu and most meteorites.

Large-scale sparse wave function circuit simulator for applications with the variational quantum eigensolver.

The standard paradigm for state preparation on quantum computers for the simulation of physical systems in the near term has been widely explored with different algorithmic methods. One such approach is the optimization of parameterized circuits, but this becomes increasingly challenging with circuit size. As a consequence, the utility of large-scale circuit optimization is relatively unknown.

Bollard-Anchored Binder System for High-Loading Cathodes Fabricated via Dry Electrode Process for Li-Ion Batteries.

The dry battery electrode (DBE) process offers significant advantages over conventional wet-coating methods for electrode fabrication. Unlike traditional processes that rely on toxic solvents such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), the DBE technique uses solvent-free methods, reducing environmental impact and production costs while enhancing compatibility and performance. However, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the only binder currently used for large-scale DBE fabrication (binder fibrillation), faces potential regulatory restrictions under Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) guidelines and limits Li-ion conductivity, elastomeric properties, and particle adhesion.

Ammonia or Methanol Would Enable Subsurface Liquid Water at the Martian South Pole.

The notion of liquid water beneath the ice layer at the south polar layered deposits (SPLD) of Mars is an interesting possibility given the implications for astrobiology and possible human habitation. A body of liquid water located at a depth of 1.5 km has been inferred from radar data in the South Polar Cap.

Energetic and genomic potential for hydrogenotrophic, formatotrophic, and acetoclastic methanogenesis in surface-expressed serpentinized fluids of the Samail Ophiolite.

Serpentinization, the reaction of water with ultramafic rock, produces reduced, hyperalkaline, and H-rich fluids that support a variety of hydrogenotrophic microbial metabolisms. Previous work indicates the occurrence of methanogenesis in fluids from the actively serpentinizing Samail Ophiolite in the Sultanate of Oman. While those fluids contain abundant H to fuel hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis (CO + 4H ➔ CH + 2HO), the concentration of CO is very low due to the hyperalkalinity (> pH 11) and geochemistry of the fluids.

The Heat Capacity of Al(OH) Revisited.

We consider different approximations to compute the heat capacity for Al(OH) and compare the computed results to the experiment. We find that the calculation of anharmonic effects for this molecule is not currently practical, and scaled harmonics, using the scaling factor for HO(g), offer the best approach to including anharmonic effects. The Pitzer-Gwinn approach for hindered rotations is recommended.

Hydrogen escaping from a pair of exoplanets smaller than Neptune.

Exoplanet surveys have shown a class of abundant exoplanets smaller than Neptune on close, <100-day orbits. These planets form two populations separated by a natural division at about 1.8 R termed the radius valley.

Accelerating Decarbonization via Tailored Zeolitic Monoliths: Insights into the Interfacial Physics of the Carbon Dioxide Adsorption Process.

Conventional packed bed carbon dioxide capture systems with randomly positioned solid sorbent beads suffer from wall channeling, early breakthroughs, excessive pressure drop penalties, and poor contact-limited thermal transport characteristics. Advanced 3D printing techniques enable monolithic lattice topologies made of sorbent that can be tailored to minimize the shortcomings of conventional packed bed systems. The full potential of the design freedom enabled by sorbent 3D printing can only be realized through a detailed understanding of the interfacial adsorption physics within sorbent lattice monoliths at the level of individual struts.

Transport properties of N + N, O + O, N + O, C + O, C+ + O, C + N, and C + C using an accurate treatment of nonzero spin and electronic angular momentum and including spin-orbit interaction.

We have carried out first principles calculations of transport properties of the title atom-atom systems using accurate ab initio electronic structure methods and quantum scattering. We go beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation and show how one can properly include the spin and orbital angular momentum of atoms in the calculations. We give the explicit transformation between coupled LS atomic states, where L is the total electron angular momentum and S is the total spin angular momentum, and the diatomic Hund's case (a) basis.

Development of interatomic potential suitable for molecular dynamics simulation of Ni oxidation and Ni-NiO interface.

Large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations enabled by computationally efficient semiempirical potentials are an invaluable tool for materials modeling. In the case of metallic alloys, embedded atom method (EAM) and Finnis-Sinclair (FS) potentials are a reasonable choice based on their good balance of quality and computational cost. However, these semiempirical potentials are not suitable for simulating ionic systems, which prevents their use in studying many technologically relevant metal-oxide systems.

Sleep Away from Earth.

This article summarizes the studies that have been done in space to date, the challenges associated with sleeping in space, contributors to circadian misalignment, what is known about sleep disorders in space, and discussion of new sleep and circadian issues that may arise as more humans travel to space and embark on missions farther from Earth.

An evaporite sequence from ancient brine recorded in Bennu samples.

Evaporation or freezing of water-rich fluids with dilute concentrations of dissolved salts can produce brines, as observed in closed basins on Earth and detected by remote sensing on icy bodies in the outer Solar System. The mineralogical evolution of these brines is well understood in regard to terrestrial environments, but poorly constrained for extraterrestrial systems owing to a lack of direct sampling. Here we report the occurrence of salt minerals in samples of the asteroid (101955) Bennu returned by the OSIRIS-REx mission.

Pinpointing the CN Stretch Frequency of Neutral Cyano-Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Laboratory and Quantum Chemical Spectroscopic Study of 9-Cyanoanthracene.

The CN stretch frequency of neutral, gas-phase 9-cyanoanthracene is 2207 cm (4.531 μm) based on high-resolution infrared absorption experiments coupled with a new hybrid anharmonic quantum chemical methodology. A broad band (full-width at half-maximum of 47 cm) is observed and assigned to multiple transitions, including the CN stretch fundamental and various combination bands that gather intensity from strong anharmonic coupling with the bright CN stretch.

Photochemical Evolution of Alanine in Association with the Martian Soil Analog Montmorillonite: Insights Derived from Experiments Conducted on the International Space Station.

The (PSS) experiment was part of the European Space Agency's mission and was conducted on the International Space Station from 2014 to 2016. The PSS experiment investigated the properties of montmorillonite clay as a protective shield against degradation of organic compounds that were exposed to elevated levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in space. Additionally, we examined the potential for montmorillonite to catalyze UV-induced breakdown of the amino acid alanine and its potential to trap the resulting photochemical byproducts within its interlayers.

Galactic cosmic ray environment predictions for the NASA BioSentinel Mission, part 2:Post-mission validation.

The BioSentinel CubeSat was deployed on the Artemis-I mission in November 2022 and has been continuously transmitting physical measurements of the space radiation environment since that time. Just before mission launch, we published computational model predictions of the galactic cosmic ray exposure expected inside BioSentinel for multiple locations and configurations. The predictions utilized models for the ambient galactic cosmic ray environment, radiation physics and transport, and BioSentinel geometry.

Mitigating dithiothreitol interference to gold/thiol interface in electrochemical detection of cathepsin B activity toward multiplex protease analysis.

Proteases are overexpressed at various stages of conditions such as cancers and thus can serve as biomarkers for disease diagnosis. Electrochemical techniques to detect the activity of extracellular proteases have gained attraction due to their multiplexing capability. Here we employ an electrochemical approach based on a 3 × 3 gold (Au) microelectrode array (MEA) functionalized with (2-aminoethyl)ferrocene (AEF) tagged specific peptide substrates to monitor cathepsin B (CB) protease activity.

Genomic highlights of the phylogenetically unique halophilic purple nonsulfur bacterium, Rhodothalassium salexigens.

Rhodothalassium (Rts.) salexigens is a halophilic purple nonsulfur bacterium and the sole species in the genus Rhodothalassium, which is itself the sole genus in the family Rhodothalassiaceae and sole family in the order Rhodothalassiales (class Alphaproteobacteria). The genome of this phylogenetically unique phototroph comprises 3.

Evaluation of the Pediatric Regional Anesthesia Time-Out Checklist: A Simulation Study.

Introduction: The Society for Pediatric Anesthesia Quality and Safety Committee developed the Pediatric Regional Anesthesia Time-Out Checklist, consisting of 14 safety items intended to be reviewed by an anesthesia team prior to a regional anesthetic. Primarily, we hypothesized that use of this Checklist would increase the number of safety items performed compared with no checklist, evaluating the usefulness of this tool. Secondarily, we hypothesized that, after checklist training, subjects would show better clinical judgment by electing to perform a regional anesthetic in scenarios in which no programmed error existed and electing to not perform a regional anesthetic in scenarios in which a programmed error did exist.