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A new study provides a glimpse into dinosaur and bird diversity in Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous, just before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.
Fossils researchers have discovered represent the first record of theropods—a dinosaur group that includes both modern birds and their closest non-avian dinosaur relatives—from the Chilean portion of Patagonia.
The finds include giant megaraptors with large sickle-like claws and birds from the group that also includes today’s modern species.
“The fauna of Patagonia leading up to the mass extinction was really diverse,” says lead author Sarah Davis, who completed the work as part of her doctoral studies with Julia Clarke, professor at the University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences geological sciences department. “You’ve got your large theropod carnivores and smaller carnivores as well as these bird groups coexisting alongside other reptiles and small mammals.”
Since 2017, members of the Clarke lab, including graduate and undergraduate students, have joined scientific collaborators from Chile in Patagonia to collect fossils and build a record of ancient life from the region. Over the years, researchers have found abundant plant and animal fossils from before the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs.
The new study focuses specifically on theropods, with the fossils dating from 66 to 75 million years ago.
Non-avian theropod dinosaurs were mostly carnivorous, and include the top predators in the food chain. This study shows that in prehistoric Patagonia, these predators included dinosaurs from two groups—megaraptors and unenlagiines.
Reaching over 25 feet long, megaraptors were among the larger theropod dinosaurs in South America during the Late Cretaceous. The unenlagiines—a group with members that ranged from chicken-sized to over 10 feet tall—were probably covered with feathers, just like their close relative the velociraptor. The unenlagiinae fossils described in the study are the southernmost known instance of this dinosaur group.
The bird fossils were also from two groups—enantiornithines and ornithurines. Although now extinct, enantiornithines were the most diverse and abundant birds millions of years ago. These resembled sparrows—but with beaks lined with teeth. The group ornithurae includes all modern birds living today. The ones living in ancient Patagonia may have resembled a goose or duck, though the fossils are too fragmentary to tell for sure.
The researchers identified the theropods from small fossil fragments; the dinosaurs mostly from teeth and toes, the birds from small bone pieces. The enamel glinting on the dinosaur teeth helped with spotting them among the rocky terrain, Davis says.
Some researchers have suggested that the Southern Hemisphere faced less extreme or more gradual climatic changes than the Northern Hemisphere after the asteroid strike. This may have made Patagonia, and other places in the Southern Hemisphere, a refuge for birds and mammals and other life that survived the extinction.
Davis says that this study can aid in investigating this theory by building up a record of ancient life before and after the extinction event.
These past records are key to understanding life as it exists today, says coauthor Marcelo Leppe, the director of the Antarctic Institute of Chile.
“We still need to know how life made its way in that apocalyptic scenario and gave rise to our southern environments in South America, New Zealand, and Australia,” he says. “Here theropods are still present—no longer as dinosaurs as imposing as megaraptorids—but as the diverse array of birds found in the forests, swamps and marshes of Patagonia, and in Antarctica and Australia.”
Additional coauthors are from the University of Chile, Major University, the University of Concepción, and the Chilean National Museum of Natural History.
WASHINGTON — Engineers are troubleshooting thruster problems on a cubesat launched last month to search for water ice at the moon, the latest in a series of technical issues among small satellites recently launched to the moon and beyond.
In a Jan. 12 update, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that three of four thrusters on the Lunar Flashlight cubesat were underperforming, or producing less thrust than expected. One explanation, JPL said, was that there are obstructions in lines feeding propellant to the thrusters, reducing the amount of propellant reaching the thrusters and thus the thrust they produce.
Spacecraft controllers are planning to operate the thrusters for longer periods, hoping that will help clear any obstructions. If the thrusters’ performance can’t be restored, project managers are considering alternative approaches that would allow the spacecraft to reach the moon and carry out its mission. The spacecraft will need to start daily maneuvers in February to be able to enter orbit around the moon in about four months.
Lunar Flashlight is designed to go into a near-rectilinear halo orbit, similar to that used by the CAPSTONE cubesat that arrived at the moon in November and the future lunar Gateway. The orbit will take the cubesat as close as 15 kilometers above the surface at the south pole, where it to use lasers to look for water ice that may exist on the surface.
The cubesat’s propulsion system uses a “green” propellant called Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic (ASCENT), formerly known as AF-M315E. The propellant was successfully demonstrated on NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission launched in 2019, but Lunar Flashlight is the first time ASCENT has been used on a mission beyond Earth orbit.
Artemis 1 launched Nov. 16 with 10 cubesat secondary payloads. More than half of them have experienced significant problems during launch. One example is LunaH-Map, a NASA-funded cubesat also designed to go into orbit to look for water ice. It has suffered a problem with a stuck valve in its electric thruster that is jeopardizing its ability to go into lunar orbit.
Several other cubesats have either reported problems or have failed to communicate at all with Earth. There is no obvious technical issue linking the problems with the cubesats.
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In a new study, ants did not adjust their behavior in response to warming temperatures.
Instead, they persisted in less-than-ideal microhabitats even when optimal ones were present.
The findings suggest ants may not be able to adjust their behavior in response to warming ecosystems.
Ants are ectotherms—animals whose body temperature depends on the environment. While these animals experience a range of temperatures in daily life, most ectotherms prefer habitats that are slightly cooler than the so-called optimal functioning temperature in which an ectothermic animal is able to best perform all of life’s functions.
If it encounters an environment warmer than the optimal point, an ectotherm risks approaching the lethal end of its physiology’s spectrum. In other words, if it gets too hot, ectotherms will die.
Little is known, however, about how—or if—insect ectotherms will adjust their behavior to avoid warmer but sublethal temperature ranges—where functioning is physiologically possible but not optimal—which are increasingly likely due to global climate change.
To learn more about how insect species may respond to those warmer, sublethal temperatures, researchers at North Carolina State University studied five species of ants common in North Carolina.
The researchers counted and collected ants in forest ecosystems and measured air temperatures at the collection sites to identify the distribution of available microhabitats. The researchers also used a unique ant thermometer to measure the temperature of the ants themselves (which varied by ant color and body size). Lastly, to determine each species’ preferred temperature, the researchers collected some ants for the lab and placed them in a rectangular chamber with a controlled temperature gradient.
The researchers found that ants in the lab did have distinct thermal preferences, but ants in the field were active in their preferred climates only slightly more often than expected by chance. Instead, most species were collected in sites that were warmer than preferred, suggesting lack of awareness or some limitation in their ability to adjust to increasing temperatures.
“It’s interesting that the worker ants we observed were willing to put themselves in uncomfortable situations while foraging,” says Sara Prado, an adjunct professor and coauthor of the study in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
“I wonder if the food was ‘profitable’ enough for the ants to stretch their comfort levels, or if they are simply willing to sacrifice their well-being for the sake of the colony.”
“Warmer times and places make warmer ants, and they’re not adjusting their activity to match their preferred conditions,” says coauthor Elsa Youngsteadt, a professor of applied ecology.
“For now, this may be a tradeoff that works out fine for them. But if you think of the huge biomass of ants underfoot, their metabolic rates are all creeping upward as the climate changes. Even if it doesn’t kill them outright, what does that amped-up metabolism mean for their life cycle and even the whole forest ecosystem?”
Youngsteadt plans to further investigate this question with urban ants that are effectively living in the future of climate change in comparatively warm cities.
Additional coauthors are from Cornell University and NC State. The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and North Carolina State University supported the work.
Saltzman said he wants to make sure the Space Force is not caught unprepared
WASHINGTON — Before they attacked Ukraine, Russia’s armed forces were viewed as one of the most powerful in the world. But the conflict exposed that as a myth.
The lesson for the U.S. Space Force is that whenever it has to fight the next conflict, it can’t be caught unprepared, said Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, U.S. chief of space operations.
The U.S. military has the world’s most advanced satellites and hardware but space forces for decades have operated in a relatively benign environment, Saltzman noted, and have not trained for a potential conflict where satellites could become military targets.
“An observation from Ukraine is you’ve got on paper, a very capable Russian military, but they didn’t necessarily have the training, they didn’t necessarily have the operational concepts for multi-domain operations,” Saltzman said on a Space Force Association webcast that aired Jan. 12.
Sometimes leaders focus on the weapon systems “and miss the fact that if you don’t have trained personnel, operational concepts and the tactics to execute with the weapon systems against the thinking adversary, that you only have half the equation,” he said.
“The Russians didn’t have C2 [command and control] structures and sustainment capability. And they’re coming up a little short,” Saltzman said. In the Space Force, “we have to make sure that not only do we have the systems to do the mission, but that our operators have the training, the experience, and we have validated tactics that actually enable those capabilities.”
To train for space warfare, operators will require a mix of live and virtual training ranges, he said. Space Force units will need to practice electronic warfare, operations against GPS jamming and how to maneuver satellites. Most of the current training infrastructure was inherited from the Air Force and the Space Force has to invest in updated capabilities.
“We have to build the infrastructure and the processes and procedures to make sure [Space Force guardians] have got what they need, whether it’s a test and training infrastructure, simulators that can replicate adversary threats and the interactions you would get with multiple units working together to solve operational challenges,” he said. “All of that needs to take place before we get into an actual conflict so that our operators are fully ready. And that’s really the priority that I’m going after.”
For example, he said, guardians will have to practice tactics to “control the space domain so that we can do what we want to do with our space assets, achieve the effects that we want to achieve, while denying the adversary the ability to use their space capabilities” to target U.S. forces.
“So we have to have the operational concepts for how we are going to do that. What are those techniques, procedures, and then you have to practice it … What I want to do is make sure we have the skills and the experience on day one of the conflict.”
An option under consideration for NSSL Phase 3 is to create “on ramps” to allow emerging launch providers to compete
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is likely to change how it selects providers of national security launch services and how it awards contracts, a program official told SpaceNews.
The changes would affect the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 procurement. United Launch Alliance and SpaceX won the Phase 2 competition in 2020, and their current contracts will be re-competed in 2024.
NSSL acquires launch services for heavy and medium lift class national security satellites.
The Phase 3 procurement strategy is still being finalized and will be released in a draft solicitation expected in the second quarter of 2023, Col. Douglas Pentecost, deputy director of the Space Force’s launch enterprise, said Jan. 13 in an email.
Compared to Phase 2, where only ULA and SpaceX were selected to launch all national security missions over five years, Phase 3 would create “on ramps” for other players to compete.
“The NSSL Phase 3 acquisition strategy is still in development but seeks to meet warfighter requirements while optimally exploiting ongoing advancements in the United States’ ever-growing commercial launch market to best combat the pacing challenge,” Pentecost said.
“A dual-lane contracting approach is being considered,” he said. One would be an IDIQ contract, short for indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity “with an unlimited number of providers.”
An IDIQ contract would allow the government to purchase launch services on an as-needed basis without committing to a specific amount. Pentecost said this vehicle would be used for less complex NSSL launches where there is likely to be more competitors. “This allows annual on-ramping of new capabilities for the less stressing NSSL missions.”
The second lane would be like Phase 2, or an indefinite delivery requirements contract with two selected providers for the more demanding NSSL missions.
Launch providers will be briefed on the details after the draft request for proposals is released, said Pentecost. “This will provide an opportunity for potential vendors to submit clarifying questions which will inform the final NSSL Phase 3 RFP planned for summer 2023.”
The dual-lane approach would satisfy congressional concerns about DoD restricting competition. “Some analysts have questioned the Space Force’s decision to award only two launch services contracts in NSSL Phase 2,” noted the Congressional Research Service in a report.
If the Space Force decided to continue working with only two providers in Phase 3, said CRS, “Congress could consider directing the Space Force to select more than two launch providers in Phase 3, directing the Space Force to examine alternative procurement models.”
DENVER – Cybersecurity specialist SpiderOak raised $16.4 million in a Series C investment round led by Empyrean Technology Solutions, a space technology platform affiliated with Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm.
Method Capital and OCA Ventures participated in the round.
“Today, space-based assets are mission essential in all civil and military operations and rapidly becoming mission critical for all national and corporate infrastructure,” Charles Beams, SpiderOak executive chairman, said in a statement. “The Space Force and the space industry consensus is that a cyber-attack is the most likely and most damaging threat to these assets.”
SpiderOak has quickly raised its profile in the space sector by winning U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research contracts for OrbitSecure, an off-the-shelf product designed to enhance satellite and constellation cybersecurity.
“Space is a demanding environment in many ways and SpiderOak’s proven zero-trust solution, using its patented distributed ledger technology, is well positioned to address these cyber threats head-on,” said Beames, a former Defense Department principal director for space and intelligence systems.
With funding from the investment round, SpiderOak plans to complete on-orbit testing and obtain flight heritage for its second-generation space product, OrbitSecure 2.0.
In addition, SpiderOak is moving its headquarters from Chicago to Reston, Virginia, and establishing a space cybersecurity laboratory. In the new laboratory, SpiderOak will provide for hardware-in-the-loop qualification testing.
“SpiderOak brings a wealth of industry experience in cybersecurity solutions to national security, an area we are already heavily invested in,” Matt Norton, Madison Dearborn Partners managing director, said in a statement. “Their proven track record in developing commercial zero-trust technology is backed by a substantial patent portfolio.”
SpiderOak CEO Dave Pearah, said in a statement that the company’s software is “backwards compatible with legacy space systems, to allow current on orbit systems to take the step to much higher cybersecurity protections.”
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The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with an increase in the frequency and mortality of pediatric gun injuries, a new study shows.
Previous studies have examined the link between the pandemic and increased firearm injuries among adults, but few studies have evaluated the impact on children.
For the new study, published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, researchers retrospectively reviewed pediatric firearm injuries before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2015 to February 2020 and compared the data to injuries that happened during the pandemic from March 2020 through March 2022.
“We found a significant increase in pediatric firearm injury rates during the pandemic compared to the five preceding years,” says lead author Mary Bernardin, assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine at the University of Missouri.
“The escalation in injuries was driven by a significant increase in firearm assaults and homicides as well as increased frequency of innocent children injured as bystanders amidst adult crime.”
Bernardin’s team reviewed 672 pediatric firearm injuries during the study timeframe, including 413 pre-COVID-19 and 259 during the pandemic. The monthly injury rate increased by 51.5% during the pandemic from an average of 6.8 shootings per month prior to the pandemic to 10.3 shootings per month during the pandemic.
Pediatric firearm deaths also increased 29% during the pandemic.
“While Black children were the most frequently victimized both prior to and during the pandemic, there was a significant increase in black victims during the pandemic relative to other races,” Bernadin says. “The proportion of victims having Medicaid or self-pay insurance status also significantly increased during the pandemic.”
Another interesting finding revealed three spikes in monthly pediatric firearm assault/homicide rates occurred during the pandemic, each happening within three months of a surge in COVID-19 deaths, Bernadin says.
“This trend is particularly noteworthy because as surges from future COVID-19 variants are likely to occur, one may infer that these surges may be related to future spikes in firearm injuries,” Bernardin says. “This threat highlights the need for increased violence-intervention services, particularly amongst marginalized communities more likely to be seriously affected by firearm violence.”
Additional coauthors are from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, and the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine.
The research did not receive any specific grants from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. The authors disclose no conflicts of interest.
For decades, open systems architectures and open standards have helped accelerate innovation to end users in aerospace and defense applications through the development of interfaces that are open, key, and well-defined. Today, space system designers and developers are truly embracing the SpaceVPX (VITA 78) standard, which leverages the OpenVPX (VITA 65.0) architecture through its slot profile and module profile level building blocks, which create interconnect solutions based on the user’s need.
Explore the basics of SpaceVPX with the designers of the VPX and SpaceVPX interconnect. Learn about the standard’s origin, the advantages of SpaceVPX vs. OpenVPX, recent changes to the standard and the importance of standard interconnects which drive down cost, results in a more robust supply chain, and maintains a path for future expansion.
SpaceVPX is a standard for creating plug-in cards (PICs) from its slot profile and module (protocol) profiles. In turn, these building blocks create interconnected subsystems and systems. Developed under the auspices of The Next Generation Space Interconnect Standard (NGSIS), it is the result of a government-Industry collaboration. The primary goal of SpaceVPX is to cost-effectively remove bandwidth as a constraint for future space systems.
SpaceVPX is based on the VITA (VMEbus International Trade Association) OpenVPX standard with enhancements that extend the standard for space applications.
The NGSIS team selected the OpenVPX standard family as the physical baseline for the new SpaceVPX standard because VPX supports both 3U and 6U form factors with ruggedized and conduction-cooled features suitable for use in extreme environments. The infrastructure of OpenVPX also allows for prototyping and testing SpaceVPX on the ground.
SpaceVPX is built upon several standards, some of which are part of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/VITA and European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) OpenVPX family:
VITA 46 VPX and its ANSI/VITA 65.0 OpenVPX derivative – baseline standard
ANSI/VITA 60 and ANSI/VITA 63 – compatible connectors
ANSI/VITA 48.2[3] – mechanical extensions
ANSI/VITA 62 – standardized power module
ANSI/VITA 66 and 67 – replacement of electrical segments with RF or optical solutions
ANSI/VITA 46.11[4] – management protocol, the basis for fault-tolerant management of the SpaceVPX system
ECSS – SpaceWire standard
ECSS – Remote Memory Access Protocol (RMAP)
ECSS – SpaceFibre standard
Gigabit Ethernet
OpenVPX is a defined set of system implementations within VPX that specifies a set of system architectures. OpenVPX organizes connections in four major interconnect planes — data, control, utility, and expansion.
Data Plane The data plane incorporates high-speed multigigabit fabric connections between modules to carry payload and mission data.
Control Plane The control plane, also a fabric connection, typically has less capacity and is used for configuration, setup, diagnostics, and other operational control functions within the payload and for lower-speed data transfers.
Utility Plane The utility plane provides setup and control of basic module functions for power sequencing, low-level diagnostics, clocks, and other base signals needed for system operation.
Expansion Plane The expansion plane may be used as a separate connection between modules using similar interfaces or to bridge heritage interfaces in a more limited topology such as a bus or ring.
Pins not defined as part of any of these planes are typically user-defined and are available for pass-through from daughter or mezzanine cards, or to rear transition modules (RTM). For maximum module reuse, the user-defined pins should be configurable so as not to interfere with modules that use the same pins in a different way. Consult ANSI/VITA 65.0 for more detail.
An evaluation of OpenVPX for space usage revealed several shortcomings. The key limitation was the lack of features available to support a full, single-fault-tolerant, highly reliable configuration. Utility signals were bused and, in most cases, supported only one set of signals via signal pins to a module. As a result, a pure OpenVPX system has opportunities for multiple failures. Additionally, a full management-control mechanism was not fully defined with VITA 46.11.
From a protocol perspective, SpaceWire is the dominant medium-speed data and control plane interface for most spacecraft, yet the typical OpenVPX control planes are peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) or Ethernet which are not generally used in space applications. (Note: Gigabit Ethernet was added to the 2022 revision of the SpaceVPX standard.)
The goal of SpaceVPX is to achieve an acceptable level of fault tolerance, while maintaining a reasonable level of compatibility with existing OpenVPX components including connector-pin assignments for the board and the backplane (Figure 1.).
Figure 1 | The goal of SpaceVPX is to achieve an acceptable level of fault tolerance by way of redundancy and switching. Illustration: VITA.
For the purposes of fault tolerance, a module (defined as a printed wire assembly which conforms to defined mechanical and electrical specifications) is considered the minimum redundancy element, or the minimum fault containment region. The utility plane and control plane within SpaceVPX are all distributed redundantly and are arranged in star topologies, dual-star topologies, partial-mesh topologies or full-mesh topologies to provide fault tolerance to the entire system.
To meet the desired level of fault tolerance, the utility plane signals must be dual-redundant and switched to each SpaceVPX card function.
A trade study, conducted in 2010 through a government and industry collaboration with the support of the SpaceVPX Working Group, compared various implementations including adding the switching to each card in various ways and creating a unique switching card. The latter approach was selected so SpaceVPX cards can each receive the same utility plane signals that an OpenVPX card receives with minor adjustments for any changes in topology. This became known as the Space Utility Management module (SpaceUM), a major foundation of the SpaceVPX standard.
A 6U SpaceUM module contains up to eight sets of power and signal switches to support eight SpaceVPX payload modules — the 3U version of the SpaceUM can support up to five. It receives one power bus from each of two power supplies and one set of utility plane signals from each of two system controller functions required in the SpaceVPX backplane. The various parts of the SpaceUM module do not require their own redundancy. They are considered extensions of the power supply, system controller and other SpaceVPX modules for reliability calculation.
Each slot, module and backplane profile in OpenVPX is fully defined and interlinked. Adapting these profiles for use in space requires specification of a SpaceVPX version of each profile.
Slot Profile A slot profile provides a physical mapping of data ports onto a slot’s backplane connector, which is agnostic to the type of protocol used to convey data from the slot to the backplane.
Module and Backplane Profiles Module profiles are extensions of their accompanying slot profiles which enable mapping of protocols to each module port. A module profile includes information on thermal, power and mechanical requirements for each module. Some module profiles for SpaceVPX are similar to OpenVPX which enables use of OpenVPX modules and backplanes for prototyping or testing on the ground. However, most module profiles for space applications are significantly different from profiles for ground applications so full specifications consistent with SpaceVPX are required. The section of the SpaceVPX standard that defines these profiles forms a majority of the standard.
Interconnects are one more critical part of SpaceVPX. As with other elements of the standard, they are based on interconnects developed for OpenVPX, but designed for the extreme space environment.
Problematic temperatures, vibration, outgassing and other factors can catastrophically compromise interconnect systems as well as signal and power integrity. For decades, designers for space applications have relied on customized interconnect designs to ensure the reliability of embedded electronics exposed to the extremes of space. The high cost and long lead times of a custom interconnect solution were once considered a worthwhile investment against failures that are extremely costly or impossible to fix in space.
Today, the use of standard interconnects drives down cost, improves availability and maintains a path for future expansion.
By leveraging the OpenVPX architecture, SpaceVPX brings in the interconnect solutions which are defined in VITA standards and have gone through extensive testing to support their use in space.
The SpaceVPX slot profiles define the use of VPX connectors (VITA 46 or alternate VPX connectors) and enable implementation of RF (VITA 67) and optical (VITA 66) modules at the plug-in module to backplane interface. Power supplies follow the VITA 62 standard, which also defines the power supply connector interface. For XMC mezzanine cards in plug-in modules, XMC 2.0 connectors per VITA 61 are recommended. Rather than defining new connectors with special characteristics, SpaceVPX slot profiles reference the appropriate VITA connector standards that support the OpenVPX architecture.
The VITA 46 VPX connector is the original VPX interconnect. It is based on TE Connectivity’s (TE) MULTIGIG RT 2 connector which was released in the VITA 46 standard in 2006.
The MULTIGIG RT connector family gives designers an easy-to-implement, modular, standardized and cost-effective interconnect system that helps ensure the reliability of their embedded-computing applications for space systems.
MULTIGIG RT connectors have gone through extensive testing by TE to establish suitability for space, including:
Compliant (press-fit) pin technology Testing has been performed at min-max board hole sizes and different printed circuit board (PCB) platings to verify the reliability of the compliant pin designs. Today, numerous space applications use compliant pin technology (as compared to traditional soldered connections), and implementation is increasing.
Vibration The VITA 72 study group was formed to address extreme vibration applications. The group devised a vibration test that subjected a 6U VPX test unit to random vibration levels of 0.2 g2/Hz for 12 hours, a severe requirement compared to the original VPX standard. TE’s MULTIGIG RT 2-R connector — featuring an enhanced quad-redundant backplane connector contact system and rugged guide hardware — tested successfully as part of this effort and has been used in highly rugged applications since 2013.
Extreme temperature MULTIGIG connectors were subjected to a temperature range of -55 ˚C to +105 ˚C when initially qualified for VPX in 2006, which met the VITA 47 standard for plug-in modules. In direct response to requirements from space-systems developers, MULTIGIG RT connectors have since been tested and survived -55 °C to +125 °C, including exposure to 1,000 hours of heat at 125 °C and 100 thermal shock cycles from -55 °C to +125 °C.
Outgassing Unlike heavy polymer plug-in module connectors used in conventional backplane connector designs, MULTIGIG RT connectors incorporate air gaps, so less polymer is required. The polymer reduction reduces weight and decreases outgassing. With MULTIGIG RT connector materials, total mass loss (TML) is less than 1% and collected volatile condensable materials (CVCM) is less than 0.01%, which meets NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) outgassing requirements.
Current capacity When VITA 78 was developed, there was a need for VPX connectors to support new pinouts (not defined in VITA 46) to support the requirements for redundant power distribution and redundant management distribution. TE completed extensive testing for current carrying capability on multiple adjacent MULTIGIG power wafers within plug-in module connectors and also released new wafer configurations to support the VITA 78 Space Utility Management module architecture.
Most space system designers use MULTIGIG RT connectors to meet their requirements with no physical change to the design or materials and finishes. If minimal changes are required (e.g., higher lead content [40%] in the contact tails is specified for increased tin-whisker mitigation), additional screening tests are required based on the user or program requirements, but the connector-manufacturing processes are relatively the same which helps improve cost and availability.
RF and optical connector modules can be integrated within an OpenVPX slot to carry signals through the backplane to/from the plug-in module. These connector modules are mounted to the boards (including standard aperture cutouts on the backplane) to house multiple coaxial contacts or optical fibers. They can replace select VITA 46 connectors within a slot. These RF and optical connector modules and contacts have been used in satellite systems and are suitable for other applications in space.
VITA 67 is the base standard for RF modules. VITA 67.3 is used for SpaceVPX architecture with apertures defined within specific slot profiles for RF and optical connector modules. VITA 67.3 offers coaxial contact solutions with the initial sub-miniature push-on micro (SMPM) contacts as well as higher-density coaxial interfaces NanoRF and switched-mode power supply (SMPS), which can increase the contact density two to three times over SMPM. A new revision to VITA 67.3 has begun to add 75 Ohm coaxial interfaces to support higher speed video.
VITA 66 is the base standard for optical modules, with MT ferrules as the primary optical interface between the plug-in module and backplane. The apertures in SpaceVPX slot profiles accommodate optical and hybrid RF/optical connector modules meeting the requirements of VITA 66.5. MT interfaces can be specified for 12 or 24 fibers for highest density.
XMC mezzanine cards can be implemented on SpaceVPX plug-in modules to add I/O and other features. VITA 61 XMC 2.0, the standard based on TE’s Mezalok connector, is the recommended XMC connector in the SpaceVPX standard. The Mezalok connector features multiple points of contact per pin, supporting the redundancy required for space applications. The connector meets outgassing requirements and has been tested to extreme environments — including 2000 thermal cycles from -55 ºC to +125 ºC with no solder joint failures.
By leveraging the OpenVPX architecture, SpaceVPX can also leverage the OpenVPX interconnect roadmap which addresses solutions having faster speeds, higher density, smaller size, and lighter weight. There is significant activity with new and revised VITA standards to define technologies supporting next-generation embedded computing.
Higher data rate MULTIGIG RT 3 connectors are available and standardized in VITA 46.30 (compliant pin) and 46.31 (solder tail) to support channels to 25-32 Gigabits per second, supporting 100G Ethernet and PCI Gen 4 and 5. These can be incorporated in a SpaceVPX slot replacing VITA 46.0 connectors.
The latest revision of the VITA 67.3 standard includes higher-density RF interfaces NanoRF and SMPS, reducing size and weight — both of which are critical for space systems — and accommodating higher frequencies to 70 GHz. A new revision to VITA 67.3 has begun to add 75 Ohm coaxial interfaces within a connector module to support higher speed video protocols.
The VITA 66.5 standard will be released in 2022, documenting higher-density optical interfaces, bringing up to three MT interfaces into a half-module and enabling integration of a fixed edge-mount transceiver. In addition, VITA 66.5 provides solutions with NanoRF contacts and optical MTs integrated into a common connector module, providing unprecedented density within an OpenVPX slot.
New VITA 62 power supply standards have addressed three-phase power (VITA 62.1) and higher 270VDC input voltages (VITA 62.2). New MULTIBEAM XLE connectors from TE with isolating fins provide this upgrade for higher voltage levels while maintaining the same VITA 62.0 interface.
SpaceVPX is a set of standards for interconnects between space system components developed to cost-effectively remove bandwidth as a constraint for future space systems.
The goal of SpaceVPX is to achieve an acceptable level of fault tolerance while maintaining a reasonable level of compatibility with existing OpenVPX components.
SpaceVPX interconnect are based on interconnects developed for OpenVPX, adapted for the extreme space environment.
TE connectors have gone through extensive testing to establish suitability for space and have been used in satellite systems and other space applications.
New and revised VITA standards continue to define technologies that support the next generation of embedded computing while reducing costs, improving availability of components, and maintaining a path for future expansion.
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Patrick Collier is Open Systems Architect and lead systems engineer at Aspen Consulting Group. He focuses on the development and use of open architectures for both space and nonspace applications. Prior to this, Patrick was an Open Systems Architect and Systems Engineer at L3Harris. Previously he was a lead hardware engineer at PMA-209 NAVAIR, where he focused on the development of the Hardware Open Systems Technology (HOST) set of standards. His first assignment was as a senior electrical research engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate. While at AFRL, he founded the Next Generation Space Interconnect Standard (NGSIS) with Raphael Some (NASA JPL). Patrick also founded and is currently chair for the VITA 78 (SpaceVPX) and VITA 78.1 (SpaceVPXLite) efforts. He is also a cofounder of the Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA) and chair of its Hardware Working Group. Additionally, he was a lead for the Space Universal Modular Architecture (SUMO), where he worked to incorporate existing space-related standards and architectures into SUMO.
Michael Walmsley, global product manager for TE Connectivity, has more than 40 years of experience with interconnects, primarily in engineering and product management roles. His areas of expertise include interconnect solutions for embedding computing, rugged high-speed board-level, and RF connectors. Michael is a board member for the VITA Standards Organization (www.vita.org), which drives technology and standards for the bus and board industry. He is also actively involved in both VITA and Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA). Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Penn State.
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Researchers have discovered a method for modifying the function of an enzyme crucial to fat production.
The find could lead to more effective treatments for childhood obesity and cancer.
While the research was in fruit fly larvae, being able to speed up or slow down lipid metabolism could have significant implications for human health, says Hua Bai, an associate professor of genetics, development and cell biology at Iowa State University.
“We’ve identified what’s basically a metabolic switch. It’s like the accelerator on a car,” he says.
The focus of Bai’s research lab is the cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause animals to age. That was the initial intent of studying fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that plays a role in de novo lipogenesis, which is the process of turning excess dietary carbohydrates into fat. Typically, levels of fatty acid synthase rise and fall based on an animal’s cellular needs and diet.
Surprisingly, the researchers noticed that early in a fruit fly’s development, de novo lipogenesis increases without an accompanying boost in the expression of fatty acid synthase. That suggested there must be some other factor at play, Bai says.
After proteins such as fatty acid synthase are created based on genetic code, their function can be altered by one of several different types of post-translational modification. Bai’s team found one of those processes, acetylation, affected one of the 2,540 amino acids that combine to make fatty acid synthase, changing how effective it was at producing fat.
In addition to its role in obesity, elevated levels of de novo lipogenesis are linked to cancer, so controlling it through a single amino acid could lead to highly targeted treatments, Bai says.
“Fine tuning the acetylation levels of fatty acid synthase would be a much more precise treatment than blocking the entire protein,” he says.
It’s not certain that the processes Bai’s team studied will work the same in humans, but the two species’ genomes are similar, which is part of the reason fruit flies are a common research subject. Still, capitalizing on the discovery to treat human disease is many years away, he says.
“The potential is high, but further testing is needed in other animals,” he says.
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There’s a strong relationship between diet in early life and food preferences in adulthood, research with mice finds.
The study in Science Advances highlights the importance of early exposure to a variety of tastes and identifies the neural basis regulating preferences for favorite foods, providing important new information about the relationship between nutrition and brain function.
Previous investigations of human infants hinted at the effect of early taste experience on food preference later in life. However, no previous study examined the neural bases of this phenomenon. This study looks at the neural bases of taste preference and provides findings that could form a basis to understanding the neural processes involved in taste preference.
The biology of the gustatory system is similar across all mammals. By using a rodent model, researchers from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University exposed groups of mice to a variety of taste solutions for one week. They exposed groups as either weanlings (early exposure) or as adults (late exposure). After the one week experiencing a variety of tastes, they returned the groups to their regular diet, which contained balanced nutrients but was not rich in taste. For comparison, a control group of mice was raised only on the regular, blander diet.
“Our research is directed at assessing whether and how the gustatory experience and diet influence brain development. This study shows that the gustatory experience has fundamental effects on the brain. The next steps will be to determine how different diets such as a high fat, or a high sugar or high salt, may influence taste preferences and neural activity,” explains Arianna Maffei, senior author and professor in the department of neurobiology and behavior.
Food preferences
Maffei, lead author Hillary Schiff, and colleagues increased taste variety in the healthy diets of mice and found that the development of neural circuits and taste preference are influenced by all aspects of the gustatory experience: sensations in the mouth, smell, and gut-brain relations.
Several weeks after exposing the groups to the one-week taste variety, the investigators measured preference for a sweet solution compared to water. Mice who experienced taste variety early in life had a stronger preference for sweet tastes in adulthood compared to the control group. This change preference depended on a combination of taste, smell, and gut-to-brain signals, and was specific to early exposure taste. Mice exposed to taste variety as adults did not show different sweet preferences from their age-matched control group.
These results indicate that taste experience influences preference, but only if given within a restricted time window.
The gustatory cortex
The researchers also recorded the activity of neurons in the gustatory cortex of all the subjects. This part of the brain is involved in taste perception and decisions about ingesting or rejecting foods. The recorded activity showed that the shift in sweet preference was associated with differences in the activity of inhibitory neurons of adult mice.
This led to the question of whether manipulating these inhibitory neurons in adulthood can re-open the window of sensitivity to the taste experience.
To answer this question, the research team injected a substance into the gustatory cortex that breaks down perineuronal nets, which are webs of proteins that accumulate around inhibitory neurons early in life. Once established, these nets play a key role in limiting plasticity—the ability to change in response to stimuli at inhibitory synapses.
When adult mice without perineuronal nets in the gustatory cortex were exposed to the taste variety, they showed a similar change in sweet preference as the group exposed earlier in life. This manipulation “rejuvenated” inhibitory synapses in the gustatory cortex and restored plasticity in response to taste experience, which confirmed the importance of maturation and plasticity in inhibitory circuits for the development of taste preference in the experimental model.
“It was striking to discover how long-lasting the effects of early experience with taste were in the young groups,” says Schiff. “The presence of a ‘critical period’ of the life cycle for the development of taste preference was a unique and exciting discovery. The prevailing view from other studies prior to this finding was that taste does not have a defined window of heightened sensitivity to experience like other sensory systems such as vision, hearing, and touch.”
From mice to humans
The authors maintain that while they conducted the study in mice, the results inform scientists on the fundamental biological aspects of experiences with taste that extends beyond animal models and to humans.
“The development of taste preference requires a full gustatory experience,” adds Maffei. “This includes the detection of taste in the mouth, its association with smell, and the activation of gastrointestinal sensations. All these aspects influence the activity of brain circuits, promoting their healthy development.”
Regarding humans, Maffei points out that we often favor food from our childhood, highlighting important cultural aspects of our taste experience. Additionally, in the public health realm, several neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders are often associated with hyper- or hyposensitivity to gustatory stimuli, suggesting links between taste and brain function in health and disease.
“Expanding our knowledge of the developmental neural circuits for tastes—as studies like this do—will contribute to our understanding of food choices, eating disorders, and diseases associated with brain disorders,” emphasizes Maffei.
Schiff, Maffei, and collaborators conclude that their overall experimental results establish a fundamental link between the gustatory experience, sweet preference, inhibitory plasticity, circuit function, and the importance of early life nutrition in setting taste preferences.
The research had support from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health.
