Thermally Induced Fluctuations Below the Onset of Rayleigh-B\'enard Convection

We report quantitative experimental results for the intensity of noise-induced fluctuations below the critical temperature difference $\Delta T_c$ for Rayleigh-B\'enard convection. The structure factor of the fluctuating convection rolls is consistent with the expected rotational invariance of the system. In agreement with predictions based on stochastic hydrodynamic equations, the fluctuation intensity is found to be proportional to $1/\sqrt{-\epsilon}$ where $\epsilon \equiv \Delta T / \Delta T_c -1$. The noise power necessary to explain the measurements agrees with the prediction for thermal noise. (WAC95-1)Comment: 13 pages of text and 4 Figures in a tar-compressed and uuencoded file (using uufiles package). Detailed instructions of unpacking are include

Abolish Fault-Oriented Divorce in Ohio - As a Service to Society and to Restore Dignity to the Domestic Relations Court

A PROMINENT COMMON PLEAS JUDGE, who for 10 years has been presiding in the Domestic Relations Division of the Court of Common Pleas of one of Ohio\u27s more populated counties, was recently heard to say: Ohio\u27s divorce law is hypocritical, lousy and archaic. About Ohio\u27s divorce laws it has also been said: Perhaps there is no statute in Ohio more abused than the statute concerning \u27divorce and alimony.\u27 Perhaps there is no statute under which greater imposition is practiced upon the court and more injustice done to individuals. These were the words of Judge Hitchcock of the Ohio Supreme Court\u27 in the year 1832

Abolish Fault-Oriented Divorce in Ohio - As a Service to Society and to Restore Dignity to the Domestic Relations Court

A PROMINENT COMMON PLEAS JUDGE, who for 10 years has been presiding in the Domestic Relations Division of the Court of Common Pleas of one of Ohio\u27s more populated counties, was recently heard to say: Ohio\u27s divorce law is hypocritical, lousy and archaic. About Ohio\u27s divorce laws it has also been said: Perhaps there is no statute in Ohio more abused than the statute concerning \u27divorce and alimony.\u27 Perhaps there is no statute under which greater imposition is practiced upon the court and more injustice done to individuals. These were the words of Judge Hitchcock of the Ohio Supreme Court in the year 1832

Olive phenology as a sensitive indicator of future climatic warming in the Mediterranean

Experimental and modelling work suggests a strong dependence of olive flowering date on spring temperatures. Since airborne pollen concentrations reflect the flowering phenology of olive populations within a radius of 50 km, they may be a sensitive regional indicator of climatic warming. We assessed this potential sensitivity with phenology models fitted to flowering dates inferred from maximum airborne pollen data. Of four models tested, a thermal time model gave the best fit for Montpellier, France, and was the most effective at the regional scale, providing reasonable predictions for 10 sites in the western Mediterranean. This model was forced with replicated future temperature simulations for the western Mediterranean from a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model (GCM). The GCM temperatures rose by 4·5 °C between 1990 and 2099 with a 1% per year increase in greenhouse gases, and modelled flowering date advanced at a rate of 6·2 d per °C. The results indicated that this long-term regional trend in phenology might be statistically significant as early as 2030, but with marked spatial variation in magnitude, with the calculated flowering date between the 1990s and 2030s advancing by 3–23 d. Future monitoring of airborne olive pollen may therefore provide an early biological indicator of climatic warming in the Mediterranean

Historical changes in the phenology of British Odonata are related to climate

Responses of biota to climate change take a number of forms including distributional shifts, behavioural changes and life history changes. This study examined an extensive set of biological records to investigate changes in the timing of life history transitions (specifically emergence) in British Odonata between 1960 and 2004. The results show that there has been a significant, consistent advance in phenology in the taxon as a whole over the period of warming that is mediated by life history traits. British odonates significantly advanced the leading edge (first quartile date) of the flight period by a mean of 1.51 ±0.060 (SEM, n=17) days per decade or 3.08±1.16 (SEM, n=17) days per degree rise in temperature when phylogeny is controlled for. This study represents the first review of changes in odonate phenology in relation to climate change. The results suggest that the damped temperature oscillations experienced by aquatic organisms compared with terrestrial organisms are sufficient to evoke phenological responses similar to those of purely terrestrial taxa

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Circulation in Short Cylinders

In preparation for an experimental study of magnetorotational instability (MRI) in liquid metal, we explore Couette flows having height comparable to the gap between cylinders, centrifugally stable rotation, and high Reynolds number. Experiments in water are compared with numerical simulations. Simulations show that endcaps corotating with the outer cylinder drive a strong poloidal circulation that redistributes angular momentum. Predicted azimuthal flow profiles agree well with experimental measurements. Spin-down times scale with Reynolds number as expected for laminar Ekman circulation; extrapolation from two-dimensional simulations at $Re\le 3200$ agrees remarkably well with experiment at $Re\sim 10^6$. This suggests that turbulence does not dominate the effective viscosity. Further detailed numerical studies reveal a strong radially inward flow near both endcaps. After turning vertically along the inner cylinder, these flows converge at the midplane and depart the boundary in a radial jet. To minimize this circulation in the MRI experiment, endcaps consisting of multiple, differentially rotating rings are proposed. Simulations predict that an adequate approximation to the ideal Couette profile can be obtained with a few rings

Boundary Limitation of Wavenumbers in Taylor-Vortex Flow

We report experimental results for a boundary-mediated wavenumber-adjustment mechanism and for a boundary-limited wavenumber-band of Taylor-vortex flow (TVF). The system consists of fluid contained between two concentric cylinders with the inner one rotating at an angular frequency $\Omega$. As observed previously, the Eckhaus instability (a bulk instability) is observed and limits the stable wavenumber band when the system is terminated axially by two rigid, non-rotating plates. The band width is then of order $\epsilon^{1/2}$ at small $\epsilon$ ($\epsilon \equiv \Omega/\Omega_c - 1$) and agrees well with calculations based on the equations of motion over a wide $\epsilon$-range. When the cylinder axis is vertical and the upper liquid surface is free (i.e. an air-liquid interface), vortices can be generated or expelled at the free surface because there the phase of the structure is only weakly pinned. The band of wavenumbers over which Taylor-vortex flow exists is then more narrow than the stable band limited by the Eckhaus instability. At small $\epsilon$ the boundary-mediated band-width is linear in $\epsilon$. These results are qualitatively consistent with theoretical predictions, but to our knowledge a quantitative calculation for TVF with a free surface does not exist.Comment: 8 pages incl. 9 eps figures bitmap version of Fig

Spiral Defect Chaos in Large Aspect Ratio Rayleigh-Benard Convection

We report experiments on convection patterns in a cylindrical cell with a large aspect ratio. The fluid had a Prandtl number of approximately 1. We observed a chaotic pattern consisting of many rotating spirals and other defects in the parameter range where theory predicts that steady straight rolls should be stable. The correlation length of the pattern decreased rapidly with increasing control parameter so that the size of a correlated area became much smaller than the area of the cell. This suggests that the chaotic behavior is intrinsic to large aspect ratio geometries.Comment: Preprint of experimental paper submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. May 12 1993. Text is preceeded by many TeX macros. Figures 1 and 2 are rather lon

A Reversible Gene-Targeting Strategy Identifies Synthetic Lethal Interactions between MK2 and p53 in the DNA Damage Response In Vivo

A fundamental limitation in devising new therapeutic strategies for killing cancer cells with DNA damaging agents is the need to identify synthetic lethal interactions between tumor-specific mutations and components of the DNA damage response (DDR) in vivo. The stress-activated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/MAPKAP kinase-2 (MK2) pathway is a critical component of the DDR network in p53-deficient tumor cells in vitro. To explore the relevance of this pathway for cancer therapy in vivo, we developed a specific gene targeting strategy in which Cre-mediated recombination simultaneously creates isogenic MK2-proficient and MK2-deficient tumors within a single animal. This allows direct identification of MK2 synthetic lethality with mutations that promote tumor development or control response to genotoxic treatment. In an autochthonous model of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we demonstrate that MK2 is responsible for resistance of p53-deficient tumors to cisplatin, indicating synthetic lethality between p53 and MK2 can successfully be exploited for enhanced sensitization of tumors to DNA-damaging chemotherapeutics in vivo.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant ES015339)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM60594)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM59281)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant CA112967)Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Environmental Health Sciences (Core Grant P30-CA14051)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Environmental Health Sciences (Core Grant ES-002109

Upregulation of the cell-cycle regulator RGC-32 in Epstein-Barr virus-immortalized cells

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple human tumours of lymphoid and epithelial origin. The virus infects and immortalizes B cells establishing a persistent latent infection characterized by varying patterns of EBV latent gene expression (latency 0, I, II and III). The CDK1 activator, Response Gene to Complement-32 (RGC-32, C13ORF15), is overexpressed in colon, breast and ovarian cancer tissues and we have detected selective high-level RGC-32 protein expression in EBV-immortalized latency III cells. Significantly, we show that overexpression of RGC-32 in B cells is sufficient to disrupt G2 cell-cycle arrest consistent with activation of CDK1, implicating RGC-32 in the EBV transformation process. Surprisingly, RGC-32 mRNA is expressed at high levels in latency I Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cells and in some EBV-negative BL cell-lines, although RGC-32 protein expression is not detectable. We show that RGC-32 mRNA expression is elevated in latency I cells due to transcriptional activation by high levels of the differentially expressed RUNX1c transcription factor. We found that proteosomal degradation or blocked cytoplasmic export of the RGC-32 message were not responsible for the lack of RGC-32 protein expression in latency I cells. Significantly, analysis of the ribosomal association of the RGC-32 mRNA in latency I and latency III cells revealed that RGC-32 transcripts were associated with multiple ribosomes in both cell-types implicating post-initiation translational repression mechanisms in the block to RGC-32 protein production in latency I cells. In summary, our results are the first to demonstrate RGC-32 protein upregulation in cells transformed by a human tumour virus and to identify post-initiation translational mechanisms as an expression control point for this key cell-cycle regulator