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Soft X-ray emissions induced by solar wind ions that collide with neutral material in the solar system have been detected around planets, and were proposed as a remote probe for solar wind interaction with the Martian exosphere. A multi-fluid three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model is adopted to derive the global distributions of solar wind particles. Spherically symmetric exospheric H, H _2 , He, O, and CO _2 density profiles and a sophisticated hybrid model that includes charge-exchange and proton–neutral excitation processes are used to study the low triplet line ratio $G=\tfrac{i+f}{r}$ (0.77 ± 0.58) of O vii and the total X-ray luminosity around Mars. We further calculate the emission factor α -value with different neutrals over wide ion-abundance and velocity ranges. Our results are in good agreement with those of previous reports. The evolution of the charge stage of solar wind ions shows that sequential recombination due to charge-exchange can be negligible in the interaction region. This only appears below an altitude of 400 km. The anonymous low disk G- ratio can be easily explained by the collisional quenching effect at neutral densities higher than 10 ^11 cm ^−3 . However, the quenching contribution is small in Mars’ exosphere and only appears below 400 km. Charge-exchange with H _2 and N _2 is still the most likely reason for this low G -ratio. X-ray emissivity maps in collisions with different neutrals differ from each other. A clear bow shock arising from the collision with all the neutrals is in accordance with previous reports. The resulting total X-ray luminosity of 6.55 MW shows better agreement with the XMM-Newton observation of 12.8 ± 1.4 MW than that of previous predictions.

X-ray emissions in protostars play an important role in the chemistry of protostellar disks and in constraining the physics of jet formation. We have experimentally investigated the mechanism of X-ray emission in protostellar jets and modeled their interaction with the surrounding medium. The simulated supersonic jet is generated by intense laser beams irradiating a K-shaped target and then impacts an obstacle. We have successfully observed X-ray emission from the obstacle surface, and we find that it comes from the outflow material and not completely from the ambient medium heated by shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-driven ramp compression was used to investigate iron characteristics along the isentropic path. The iterative Lagrangian analysis method was employed to analyze the free surface velocity profiles in iron stepped target measured with two VISARs. The onset stress for the α to ε phase transformation was determined from the sudden change in the sound velocity and was found over-pressurized compared to the static and shock results. The derived stress (26 GPa) and strain rate (up to 108 s−1) are consistent with our previous experimental results. The stress–density relations were compared with those from previous ramp experiments and good agreements were found, which experimentally confirms the simulations, showing that iterative Lagrangian analysis can be applied to the ramp-compression data with weak shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Line emissivities and ionic fraction in (non-)equilibrium are crucial for understanding the x-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectra. These emission originate from electron-impact excitations for a level population of highly charged ions in coronal-like plasma. Recently, a large amount of excitation data was generated within the -matrix framework by the computational atomic physics community, especially the UK APAP network. These data take resonances in electron–ion collisions into account appropriately, which enhances the effective excitation rates and also the line emissivities in x-ray and EUV regions. For ionization equilibrium data, the earlier compilation by Mazzotta et al (1998 Astron. Astrophys. Supp. Ser.133 403) was used extensively by the astronomical community until the update by Bryans et al (2006 Astrophys. J. Supp. Ser.167 343), as well as the compilation of Dere (2007 Astron. Astrophys.466 771) for electron-impact ionization rates. In past years, many experimental measurements have been performed of highly charged iron ions in heavy-ion storage ring facilities. In this work, we will investigate the line emissivities and ionization equilibrium of highly charged iron ions by using recent theoretical or experimental data of electron-impact excitations and ionizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptomyces bingchenggensis is an industrial producer of milbemycins, which are important anthelmintic and insecticidal agents. Two-component systems (TCSs), which are typically situated in the same operon and are composed of a histidine kinase and a response regulator, are the predominant signal transduction pathways involved in the regulation of secondary metabolism in Streptomyces . Here, an atypical TCS, AtcR/AtcK, in which the encoding genes (sbi_06838/sbi_06839) are organized in a head-to-head pair, was demonstrated to be indispensable for the biosynthesis of multiple secondary metabolites in S. bingchenggensis . With the null TCS mutants, the production of milbemycin and yellow compound was abolished but nanchangmycin was overproduced. Transcriptional analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that AtcR regulated the biosynthesis of these three secondary metabolites by a MilR3-mediated cascade. First, AtcR was activated by phosphorylation from signal-triggered AtcK. Second, the activated AtcR promoted the transcription of milR3 . Third, MilR3 specifically activated the transcription of downstream genes from milbemycin and yellow compound biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and nanR4 from the nanchangmycin BGC. Finally, because NanR4 is a specific repressor in the nanchangmycin BGC, activation of MilR3 downstream genes led to the production of yellow compound and milbemycin but inhibited nanchangmycin production. By rewiring the regulatory cascade, two strains were obtained, the yield of nanchangmycin was improved by 45-fold to 6.08 g/L and the production of milbemycin was increased twofold to 1.34 g/L. This work has broadened our knowledge on atypical TCSs and provided practical strategies to engineer strains for the production of secondary metabolites in Streptomyces .IMPORTANCE Streptomyces bingchenggensis is an important industrial strain that produces milbemycins. Two-component systems (TCSs), which consist of a histidine kinase and a response regulator, are the predominant signal transduction pathways involved in the regulation of secondary metabolism in Streptomyces . Coupled encoding genes of TCSs are typically situated in the same operon. Here, TCSs with encoding genes situated in separate head-to-head neighbor operons were labeled atypical TCSs. It was found that the atypical TCS AtcR/AtcK played an indispensable role in the biosynthesis of milbemycin, yellow compound, and nanchangmycin in S. bingchenggensis . This atypical TCS regulated the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites in a cascade mediated via a cluster-situated regulator, MilR3. Through rewiring the regulatory pathways, strains were successfully engineered to overproduce milbemycin and nanchangmycin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on atypical TCS, in which the encoding genes of RR and HK were situated in separate head-to-head neighbor operons, involved in secondary metabolism. In addition, data mining showed that atypical TCSs were widely distributed in actinobacteria., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.