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Cerebral malaria (CM) is associated with high mortality and morbidity as a certain percentage of survivors suffers from persistent neurological sequelae. The mechanisms leading to death and functional impairments are yet not fully understood. This study investigated biochemical and morphological markers of apoptosis in the brains of mice infected with Plasmodium berghei ANKA. Cleaved caspase-3 was detected in the brains of animals with clinical signs of CM and immunoreactivity directly correlated with the clinical severity of the disease. Caudal parts of the brain showed more intense immunoreactivity for cleaved caspase-3. Double-labelling experiments revealed processing of caspase-3 primarily in neurons and oligodendrocytes. These cells also exhibited apoptotic-like morphological profiles in ultrastructural analysis. Further, cleavage of caspase-3 was found in endothelial cells. In contrast to neurons and oligodendrocytes, apoptosis of endothelial cells already occurred in early stages of the disease. Our results are the first to demonstrate processing of caspase-3 in different central nervous system cells of animals with CM. Apoptosis of endothelial cells may represent a critical issue for the development of the disease in the mouse model. Neurological signs and symptoms might be attributable, at least in part, to apoptotic degeneration of neurons and glia in advanced stages of murine CM.

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Collisions between large, similar-sized bodies are believed to shape the final characteristics and composition of terrestrial planets. Their inventories of volatiles such as water are either delivered or at least significantly modified by such events. Besides the transition from accretion to erosion with increasing impact velocity, similar-sized collisions can also result in hit-and-run outcomes for sufficiently oblique impact angles and large enough projectile-to-target mass ratios. We study volatile transfer and loss focusing on hit-and-run encounters by means of smooth particle hydrodynamics simulations, including all main parameters: impact velocity, impact angle, mass ratio and also the total colliding mass. We find a broad range of overall water losses, up to 75% in the most energetic hit-and-run events, and confirm the much more severe consequences for the smaller body also for stripping of volatile layers. Transfer of water between projectile and target inventories is found to be mostly rather inefficient, and final water contents are dominated by pre-collision inventories reduced by impact losses, for similar pre-collision water mass fractions. Comparison with our numerical results shows that current collision outcome models are not accurate enough to reliably predict these composition changes in hit-and-run events. To also account for nonmechanical losses, we estimate the amount of collisionally vaporized water over a broad range of masses and find that these contributions are particularly important in collisions of ∼ Mars-sized bodies, with sufficiently high impact energies, but still relatively low gravity. Our results clearly indicate that the cumulative effect of several (hit-and-run) collisions can efficiently strip protoplanets of their volatile layers, especially the smaller body, as it might be common, e.g., for Earth-mass planets in systems with Super-Earths. An accurate model for stripping of volatiles that can be included in future planet formation simulations has to account for the peculiarities of hit-and-run events and track compositional changes in both large post-collision fragments.

Context. According to the latest theoretical and isotopic evidence, Earth's water content originates mainly from today's asteroid belt region, or at least from the same precursor material. This suggests that water was transported inwards to Earth, and to similar planets in their habitable zone, via (giant) collisions of planetary embryos and planetesimals during the chaotic final phase of planet formation. Aims. In current dynamical simulations water delivery to terrestrial planets is still studied almost exclusively by assuming oversimplified perfect merging, even though water and other volatiles are particularly prone to collisional transfer and loss. To close this gap we have developed a computational framework to model collisional water transport by direct combination of long-term N-body computations with dedicated 3D smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) collision simulations of differentiated, self-gravitating bodies for each event.Methods. Post-collision water inventories are traced self-consistently in the further dynamical evolution, in accretionary or erosive as well as hit-and-run encounters with two large surviving bodies, where besides collisional losses, water transfer between the encountering bodies has to be considered. This hybrid approach enables us for the first time to trace the full dynamical and collisional evolution of a system of approximately 200 bodies throughout the whole late-stage accretion phase (several hundred Myr). As a first application we choose a Solar System-like architecture with already formed giant planets on either circular or eccentric orbits and a debris disk spanning the whole terrestrial planet region (0.5 -4 au).Results. Including realistic collision treatment leads to considerably different results than simple perfect merging, with lower mass planets and water inventories reduced regularly by a factor of two or more. Due to a combination of collisional losses and a considerably lengthened accretion phase, final water content, especially with giant planets on circular orbits, is strongly reduced to more Earth-like values, and closer to results with eccentric giant planets. Water delivery to potentially habitable planets is dominated by very few decisive collisions, mostly with embryo-sized or larger objects and only rarely with smaller bodies, at least if embryos have formed throughout the whole disk initially. The high frequency of hit-and-run collisions and the differences to predominantly accretionary encounters, such as generally low water (and mass) transfer efficiencies, are a crucial part of water delivery, and of system-wide evolution in general.

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The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will impact into the asteroid Dimorphos on 2022 September 26 as a test of the kinetic impactor technique for planetary defense. The efficiency of the deflection following a kinetic impactor can be represented using the momentum enhancement factor, β, which is dependent on factors such as impact geometry and the specific target material properties. Currently, very little is known about Dimorphos and its material properties, which introduces uncertainty in the results of the deflection efficiency observables, including crater formation, ejecta distribution, and β. The DART Impact Modeling Working Group (IWG) is responsible for using impact simulations to better understand the results of the DART impact. Pre-impact simulation studies also provide considerable insight into how different properties and impact scenarios affect momentum enhancement following a kinetic impact. This insight provides a basis for predicting the effects of the DART impact and the first understanding of how to interpret results following the encounter. Following the DART impact, the knowledge gained from these studies will inform the initial simulations that will recreate the impact conditions, including providing estimates for potential material properties of Dimorphos and β resulting from DART’s impact. This paper summarizes, at a high level, what has been learned from the IWG simulations and experiments in preparation for the DART impact. While unknown, estimates for reasonable potential material properties of Dimorphos provide predictions for β of 1–5, depending on end-member cases in the strength regime.