Current driven electrostatic and electromagnetic ion cyclotron instabilities

Growth rates and parameter dependences are calculated for the current driven instabilities of electrostatic (with finite-beta corrections) and electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves. For 0.25 (T sub e)/(T sub i) 2.5, ion cyclotron waves have large growth rates, while ion acoustic waves are still stable. In fusion devices, where electrostatic waves may be stable, electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves are unstable for beta sub i 0.001

Thermal non-equilibrium in dispersed flow film boiling in a vertical tube

The departure from thermal equilibrium between a dispersed liquid phase and its vapor at high quality during film boiling is investigated, The departure from equilibruim is manifested by the high resistance to heat transfer between the dispersed and continuous phases, which result in much higher vapor temperatures and a defect in the amount of vapor generated. The effect on the overall heat transfer is to raise the tube wall temperature, and incomplete evaporation occurs within the tubes. Film boiling tests with liquid nitrogen (70,0 90 SG 190,000 lbm/hr/ft2 and 5000sq/A!25,000 Btu/hr/ft ) were made with 0.228, 0,323, and 0.462 inch ID tubes, 4 and 8 foot long. Visual observations showed that complete evaporation occurs at heat inputs much greater than the required heat of evaporation based on thermal equilibruim (A Hinput >Hfg); in terms of quality, the heat inp t was as large as 300% quality for G = 70,000 lbm/hr/ft . The departure from equilibruim is principally a function of the total mass velocity, being less at higher mass velocities. The non-equilibruim quality was measured experimentally by a helium tracer ggs technique; reliable quality data at G = 70,000 lbm/hr/ft was found to be in agreement with the departure from equilibruim calculated by applying a modified single phase heat transfer coefficient to the film boiling data. A kinematic-heat transfer analysis of the core flow, which takes into account the acceleration, evaporation and breakup of a droplet, confirmed the trends in the departure from equilibrium. A Weber number criterion (Wec = 7.5) was found to adequately describe the breakup of droplets over a partial range of test conditions. Film boiling pressure drop is also reported.Sponsored by the National Science Foundation Contract D.S.R

Influence of the Lower Hybrid Drift Instability on the onset of Magnetic Reconnection

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional kinetic simulation results reveal the importance of the Lower-Hybrid Drift Instability LHDI to the onset of magnetic reconnection. Both explicit and implicit kinetic simulations show that the LHDI heats electrons anisotropically and increases the peak current density. Linear theory predicts these modifications can increase the growth rate of the tearing instability by almost two orders of magnitude and shift the fastest growing modes to significantly shorter wavelengths. These predictions are confirmed by nonlinear kinetic simulations in which the growth and coalescence of small scale magnetic islands leads to a rapid onset of large scale reconnection

Domainoid: domain-oriented orthology inference

BACKGROUND: Orthology inference is normally based on full-length protein sequences. However, most proteins contain independently folding and recurring regions, domains. The domain architecture of a protein is vital for its function, and recombination events mean individual domains can have different evolutionary histories. It has previously been shown that orthologous proteins may differ in domain architecture, creating challenges for orthology inference methods operating on full-length sequences. We have developed Domainoid, a new tool aiming to overcome these challenges faced by full-length orthology methods by inferring orthology on the domain level. It employs the InParanoid algorithm on single domains separately, to infer groups of orthologous domains. RESULTS: This domain-oriented approach allows detection of discordant domain orthologs, cases where different domains on the same protein have different evolutionary histories. In addition to domain level analysis, protein level orthology based on the fraction of domains that are orthologous can be inferred. Domainoid orthology assignments were compared to those yielded by the conventional full-length approach InParanoid, and were validated in a standard benchmark. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that domain-based orthology inference can reveal many orthologous relationships that are not found by full-length sequence approaches. AVAILABILITY: https://bitbucket.org/sonnhammergroup/domainoid/

Removal of Escherichia coli in treated wastewater used for food production in Morogoro, Tanzania

Acadmic Journal Vol. 10(33), pp. 1344-1350The aim of this study was to assess the removal efficiency of Escherichia coli at Mafisa and Mzumbe domestic wastewater treatment ponds in Morogoro, Tanzania. The study was done from October, 2013 to April, 2014. A total of 125 water samples from inlets and subsequent anaerobic, facultative and maturation ponds as well as treated wastewater were collected and analysed for E. coli. The estimated retention times of the wastewater treatment units were 19 and 22 days in Mafisa and Mzumbe ponds, respectively. The concentration of E. coli ranged from 4.70 to 5.60 log cfu/mL in untreated wastewater and was reduced to <1.00 to 2.00 log cfu/mL in the treated wastewater. During rainy and cold seasons, the effluent discharged out at Mafisa during August 2013; and March and April, 2014 was about 2 log cfu/mL while at Mzumbe E. coli concentration in effluent discharged out was up to 1.23 log cfu/mL. The concentration of E. coli in untreated and treated wastewater from the two wastewater treatment ponds study sites were comparable (P<0.05). Reduction of E. coli concentration in wastewater treatment ponds study sites was significant with less reduction seen at Mafisa, during rainy and cold seasons in March, April and August. To conclude, the simple wastewater treatment ponds in the study sites were effective and demonstrated potential for reduction of public health risks associated with use of treated wastewater in agricultural irrigation and aquaculture

Oxidative DNA damage stalls the human mitochondrial replisome

Oxidative stress is capable of causing damage to various cellular constituents, including DNA. There is however limited knowledge on how oxidative stress influences mitochondrial DNA and its replication. Here, we have used purified mtDNA replication proteins, i.e. DNA polymerase γ holoenzyme, the mitochondrial single-stranded DNA binding protein mtSSB, the replicative helicase Twinkle and the proposed mitochondrial translesion synthesis polymerase PrimPol to study lesion bypass synthesis on oxidative damage-containing DNA templates. Our studies were carried out at dNTP levels representative of those prevailing either in cycling or in non-dividing cells. At dNTP concentrations that mimic those in cycling cells, the replication machinery showed substantial stalling at sites of damage, and these problems were further exacerbated at the lower dNTP concentrations present in resting cells. PrimPol, the translesion synthesis polymerase identified inside mammalian mitochondria, did not promote mtDNA replication fork bypass of the damage. This argues against a conventional role for PrimPol as a mitochondrial translesion synthesis DNA polymerase for oxidative DNA damage; however, we show that Twinkle, the mtDNA replicative helicase, is able to stimulate PrimPol DNA synthesis in vitro, suggestive of an as yet unidentified role of PrimPol in mtDNA metabolism

Negative muon spin rotation and relaxation on superconducting MgB2

The internal nuclear magnetic field in a superconducting MgB2 powder sample was studied with a μ- SR technique. Although the past μ +SR study on MgB2 reported the appearance of a dynamic behavior even below Tc due to μ + diffusion, μ- SR shows a static behavior in the whole temperature range measured, as expected. The ZF-μ- SR spectra do not suggest any appearance of additional magnetic field below Tc within the experimental accuracy. Considering the small asymmetry of the μ- SR signal, it is a challenge to detect the appearance of an internal magnetic field below Tc caused by the time reversal symmetry breaking

Three-Dimensional Fermi Surface of Overdoped La-Based Cuprates

We present a soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the overdoped high-temperature superconductors La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ and La$_{1.8-x}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. In-plane and out-of-plane components of the Fermi surface are mapped by varying the photoemission angle and the incident photon energy. No $k_z$ dispersion is observed along the nodal direction, whereas a significant antinodal $k_z$ dispersion is identified. Based on a tight-binding parametrization, we discuss the implications for the density of states near the van-Hove singularity. Our results suggest that the large electronic specific heat found in overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ can not be assigned to the van-Hove singularity alone. We therefore propose quantum criticality induced by a collapsing pseudogap phase as a plausible explanation for observed enhancement of electronic specific heat

Computational 3-D inversion for seismic exploration

This is the final report of a four-month, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project carried out at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). There is a great need for a new and effective technology with a wide scope of industrial applications to investigate media internal properties of which can be explored only from the backscattered data. The project was dedicated to the development of a three-dimensional computational inversion tool for seismic exploration. The new computational concept of the inversion algorithm was suggested. The goal of the project was to prove the concept and the practical validity of the algorithm for petroleum exploration