Stick-slip instability for viscous fingering in a gel

The growth dynamics of an air finger injected in a visco-elastic gel (a PVA/borax aqueous solution) is studied in a linear Hele-Shaw cell. Besides the standard Saffmann-Taylor instability, we observe - with increasing finger velocities - the existence of two new regimes: (a) a stick-slip regime for which the finger tip velocity oscillates between 2 different values, producing local pinching of the finger at regular intervals, (b) a ``tadpole'' regime where a fracture-type propagation is observed. A scaling argument is proposed to interpret the dependence of the stick-slip frequency with the measured rheological properties of the gel.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Europhysics Letter

Collapse of Flux Tubes

The dynamics of an idealized, infinite, MIT-type flux tube is followed in time as the interior evolves from a pure gluon field to a $\overline q \ q$ plasma. We work in color U(1). $\overline q\ q$ pair formation is evaluated according to the Schwinger mechanism using the results of Brink and Pavel. The motion of the quarks toward the tube endcaps is calculated by a Boltzmann equation including collisions. The tube undergoes damped radial oscillations until the electric field settles down to zero. The electric field stabilizes the tube against pinch instabilities; when the field vanishes, the tube disintegrates into mesons. There is only one free parameter in the problem, namely the initial flux tube radius, to which the results are very sensitive. Among various quantities calculated is the mean energy of the emitted pions.Comment: 16 pages plus 12 figures. RevTex3. DOE/ER/40427-160N9

Oxidative Stress in Canine Histiocytic Sarcoma Cells Induced by an Infection with Canine Distemper Virus Led to a Dysregulation of HIF-1α Downstream Pathway Resulting in a Reduced Expression of VEGF-B in vitro

Histiocytic sarcomas represent malignant tumors which require new treatment strategies. Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a promising candidate due to its oncolytic features reported in a canine histiocytic sarcoma cell line (DH82 cells). Interestingly, the underlying mechanism might include a dysregulation of angiogenesis. Based on these findings, the aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of a persistent CDV-infection on oxidative stress mediated changes in the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1\u3b1 and its angiogenic downstream pathway in DH82 cells in vitro. Microarray data analysis, immunofluorescence for 8-hydroxyguanosine, superoxide dismutase 2 and catalase, and flow cytometry for oxidative burst displayed an increased oxidative stress in persistently CDV-infected DH82 cells (DH82Ond pi) compared to controls. The HIF-1\u3b1 expression in DH82Ond pi increased, as demonstrated by Western blot, and showed an unexpected, often sub-membranous distribution, as shown by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. Furthermore, microarray data analysis and immunofluorescence confirmed a reduced expression of VEGF-B in DH82Ond pi compared to controls. In summary, these results suggest a reduced activation of the HIF-1\u3b1 angiogenic downstream pathway in DH82Ond pi cells in vitro, most likely due to an excessive, unusually localized, and non-functional expression of HIF-1\u3b1 triggered by a CDV-induced increased oxidative stress

Static Response Function for Longitudinal and Transverse Excitations in Superfluid Helium

The sum rule formalism is used to evaluate rigorous bounds for the density and current static response functions in superfluid helium at zero temperature. Both lower and upper bounds are considered. The bounds are expressed in terms of ground state properties (density and current correlation funtions) and of the interatomic potential. The results for the density static response significantly improve the Feynman approximation and turn out to be close to the experimental (neutron scattering) data. A quantitative prediction for the transverse current response is given. The role of one-phonon and multi-particle excitations in the longitudinal and transverse channels is discussed. (Phys.Rev.B, in press)Comment: 19 pages (plain TeX) and 3 Figures (postscript), UTF-26

Beyond the Thomas-Fermi approximation for a trapped condensed Bose-Einstein gas

Corrections to the zero-temperature Thomas-Fermi description of a dilute interacting condensed Bose-Einstein gas confined in an isotropic harmonic trap arise due to the presence of a boundary layer near the condensate surface. Within the Bogoliubov approximation, the various contributions to the ground-state condensate energy all have terms of order R^{-4}ln R and R^{-4}, where R is the number-dependent dimensionless condensate radius in units of the oscillator length. The zero-order hydrodynamic density-fluctuation amplitudes are extended beyond the Thomas-Fermi radius through the boundary layer to provide a uniform description throughout all space. The first-order correction to the excitation frequencies is shown to be of order R^{-4}.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, revtex. Completely revised discussion of the boundary-layer corrections to collective excitations, and two new figures added. To appear in Phys. Rev. A (October, 1998

RALGAPA1 Deletion in Belgian Shepherd Dogs with Cerebellar Ataxia.

Several genetically distinct forms of cerebellar ataxia exist in Belgian shepherd dogs. We investigated a litter in which two puppies developed cerebellar ataxia. The clinical signs stabilized at around six weeks of age, but remained visible into adulthood. Combined linkage and homozygosity mapping delineated a 5.5 Mb critical interval. The comparison of whole-genome sequence data of one affected dog to 929 control genomes revealed a private homozygous ~4.8 kb deletion in the critical interval, Chr8:14,468,376_14,473,136del4761. The deletion comprises exon 35 of the RALGAPA1 gene, XM_038544497.1:c.6080-2893_6944+1003del. It is predicted to introduce a premature stop codon into the transcript, truncating ~23% of the wild-type open reading frame of the encoded Ral GTPase-activating protein catalytic subunit α 1, XP_038400425.1:(p.Val2027Glnfs*7). Genotypes at the deletion showed the expected co-segregation with the phenotype in the family. Genotyping additional ataxic Belgian shepherd dogs revealed three additional homozygous mutant dogs from a single litter, which had been euthanized at five weeks of age due to their severe clinical phenotype. Histopathology revealed cytoplasmic accumulation of granular material within cerebellar Purkinje cells. Genotyping a cohort of almost 900 Belgian shepherd dogs showed the expected genotype-phenotype association and a carrier frequency of 5% in the population. Human patients with loss-of-function variants in RALGAPA1 develop psychomotor disability and early-onset epilepsy. The available clinical and histopathological data, together with current knowledge about RALGAPA1 variants and their functional impact in other species, suggest the RALGAPA1 deletion is the likely causative defect for the observed phenotype in the affected dogs

Comparison of different in situ hybridization techniques for the detection of various RNA and DNA viruses

In situ hybridization (ISH) is a technique to determine potential correlations between viruses and lesions. The aim of the study was to compare ISH techniques for the detection of various viruses in different tissues. Tested RNA viruses include atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) in the cerebellum of pigs, equine and bovine hepacivirus (EqHV, BovHepV) in the liver of horses and cattle, respectively, and Schmallenberg virus (SBV) in the cerebrum of goats. Examined DNA viruses comprise canine bocavirus 2 (CBoV-2) in the intestine of dogs, porcine bocavirus (PBoV) in the spinal cord of pigs and porcine circovirus 2 (PCV-2) in cerebrum, lymph node, and lung of pigs. ISH with self-designed digoxigenin-labelled RNA probe

Influenza A (H10N7) virus causes respiratory tract disease in harbor seals and ferrets

Avian influenza viruses sporadically cross the species barrier to mammals, including humans, in which they may cause epidemic disease. Recently such an epidemic occurred due to the emergence of avian influenza virus of the subtype H10N7 (Seal/H10N7) in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). This epidemic caused high mortality in seals along the north-west coast of Europe and represented a potential risk for human health. To characterize the spectrum of lesions and to identify the target cells and viral distribution, findings in 16 harbor seals spontaneously infected with Seal/H10N7 are described. The seals had respiratory tract inflammation extending from the nasal cavity to bronchi associated with intralesional virus antigen in respiratory epithelial cells. Virus infection was restricted to the respiratory tract. The fatal outcome of the viral infection in seals was most likely caused by secondary bacterial infections. To investigate the pathogenic potential of H10N7 infection for humans, we inoculated the seal virus intratracheally into six ferrets and performed pathological and virological analyses at 3 and 7 days post inoculation. These experimentally inoculated ferrets displayed mild clinical signs, virus excretion from the pharynx and respiratory tract inflammation extending from bronchi to alveoli that was associated with virus antigen expression exclusively in the respiratory epithelium. Virus was isolated only from the respiratory tract. In conclusion, Seal/H10N7 infection in naturally infected harbor seals and experimentally infected ferrets shows that respiratory epithelial cells are the permissive cells for viral replication. Fatal outcome in seals was caused by secondary bacterial pneumonia similar to that in fatal human cases during influenza pandemics. Productive infection of ferrets indicates that seal/H10N7 may possess a zoonotic potential. This outbreak of LPAI from wild birds to seals demonstrates the risk of such occasions for mammals and thus humans