5,554 research outputs found
Astrophysical significance of the anisotropic kinetic alpha effect
The generation of large scale flows by the anisotropic kinetic alpha (AKA)
effect is investigated in simulations with a suitable time-dependent space- and
time-periodic anisotropic forcing lacking parity invariance. The forcing
pattern moves relative to the fluid, which leads to a breaking of the Galilean
invariance as required for the AKA effect to exist. The AKA effect is found to
produce a clear large scale flow pattern when the Reynolds number, R, is small
as only a few modes are excited in linear theory. In this case the
non-vanishing components of the AKA tensor are dynamically independent of the
Reynolds number. For larger values of R, many more modes are excited and the
components of the AKA tensor are found to decrease rapidly with increasing
value of R. However, once there is a magnetic field (imposed and of sufficient
strength, or dynamo-generated and saturated) the field begins to suppress the
AKA effect, regardless of the value of R. It is argued that the AKA effect is
unlikely to be astrophysically significant unless the magnetic field is weak
and R is small.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A&
On the Structure of the Magnetic Field in a Kinematic ABC Flow Dynamo
The kinematic induction equation of MHD is solved numerically in the case of
the normal ``111'' ABC flow using a general staggered mesh method. Careful 3-D
visualizations of the topology of the magnetic field reveal that previous
conclusions about the modes of operation of this type of kinematic dynamo must
be revised. The two known windows of dynamo action at low and high magnetic
Reynolds number, correspond to two distinct modes, both relying crucially on
the replenishing of the magnetic field near a discontinuity at the beta-type
stagnation points in the flow. One of these modes display double magnetic
structures that were previously found only to obscure the physics of the
dynamo: They turn out, however, to play an important part in the process of
amplifying the magnetic field. Invariant properties of the mode in the second
magnetic Reynolds number window support the case for the normal ABC flow as a
fast dynamo.Comment: Associated webpage, see http://www.astro.su.se/~dorch/dynamo
The inverse cascade and nonlinear alpha-effect in simulations of isotropic helical hydromagnetic turbulence
A numerical model of isotropic homogeneous turbulence with helical forcing is
investigated. The resulting flow, which is essentially the prototype of the
alpha^2 dynamo of mean-field dynamo theory, produces strong dynamo action with
an additional large scale field on the scale of the box (at wavenumber k=1;
forcing is at k=5). This large scale field is nearly force-free and exceeds the
equipartition value. As the magnetic Reynolds number R_m increases, the
saturation field strength and the growth rate of the dynamo increase. However,
the time it takes to built up the large scale field from equipartition to its
final super-equipartition value increases with magnetic Reynolds number. The
large scale field generation can be identified as being due to nonlocal
interactions originating from the forcing scale, which is characteristic of the
alpha-effect. Both alpha and turbulent magnetic diffusivity eta_t are
determined simultaneously using numerical experiments where the mean-field is
modified artificially. Both quantities are quenched in a R_m-dependent fashion.
The evolution of the energy of the mean field matches that predicted by an
alpha^2 dynamo model with similar alpha and eta_t quenchings. For this model an
analytic solution is given which matches the results of the simulations. The
simulations are numerically robust in that the shape of the spectrum at large
scales is unchanged when changing the resolution from 30^3 to 120^3 meshpoints,
or when increasing the magnetic Prandtl number (viscosity/magnetic diffusivity)
from 1 to 100. Increasing the forcing wavenumber to 30 (i.e. increasing the
scale separation) makes the inverse cascade effect more pronounced, although it
remains otherwise qualitatively unchanged.Comment: 21 pages, 26 figures, ApJ (accepted
Do stronger school smoking policies make a difference? Analysis of the health behaviour in school-aged children survey
Background: Associations of the strength of school smoking policies with cigarette, e-cigarette and cannabis use in Wales were examined. Methods: Nationally representative cross-sectional survey of pupils aged 11–16 years (N=7376) in Wales. Senior management team members from 67 schools completed questionnaires about school smoking policies, substance use education and tobacco cessation initiatives. Multi-level, logistic regression analyses investigated self-reported cigarette, e-cigarette and cannabis use, for all students and those aged 15–16 years. Results: Prevalence of current smoking, e-cigarette use and cannabis use in the past month were 5.3%, 11.5% and 2.9%, respectively. Of schools that provided details about smoking policies (66/67), 39.4% were strong (written policy applied to everyone in all locations), 43.9% were moderate (written policy not applied to everyone in all locations) and 16.7% had no written policy. There was no evidence of an association of school smoking policies with pupils’ tobacco or e-cigarette use. However, students from schools with a moderate policy [OR = 0.47; 95% (confidence interval) CI: 0.26–0.84] were less likely to have used cannabis in the past month compared to schools with no written policy. This trend was stronger for students aged 15–16 years (moderate policy: OR = 0.42; 95% CI: 0.22–0.80; strong policy: OR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.23–0.87). Conclusions: School smoking policies may exert less influence on young people’s smoking behaviours than they did during times of higher adolescent smoking prevalence. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the potential influence of school smoking policies on cannabis use and mechanisms explaining this associatio
Protocell Communication Through the Eyes of Synthetic Organic Chemists
The bottom-up fabrication of synthetic cells (protocells) from molecules and materials, is a major challenge of modern chemistry. A significant breakthrough has been the engineering of protocells capable of chemical communication using bio- derived molecules and ex situ stabilised cell machineries. These, however, suffer from short shelf-lives, high costs, and require mild aqueous conditions. In this Concept Article we analyse the chemistry at the heart of protocell communication to highlight new opportunities for synthetic chemists in protocell engineer- ing. Specifically, we (i) categorise the main bio-derived chemical communication machineries in enzyme cascades, DNA strand displacement, and gene-mediated communication; (ii) review the chemistries of these signal transduction machineries; and (iii) introduce new types of bio-inspired, fully synthetic artificial enzymes to replace their natural counterparts. Developing protocells that incorporate synthetic analogues of bio-derived signal transduction machineries will improve the robustness, stability, and versatility of protocells, and broaden their applications to highly strategic fields such as photocatalysis and fine chemicals production
Lagrangian analysis of alignment dynamics for isentropic compressible magnetohydrodynamics
After a review of the isentropic compressible magnetohydrodynamics (ICMHD)
equations, a quaternionic framework for studying the alignment dynamics of a
general fluid flow is explained and applied to the ICMHD equations.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, submitted to a Focus Issue of New Journal of
Physics on "Magnetohydrodynamics and the Dynamo Problem" J-F Pinton, A
Pouquet, E Dormy and S Cowley, editor
DNA Double Strand Break Repair and Its Control by Nucleosome Remodeling
DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are repaired in eukaryotes by one of several cellular mechanisms. The decision-making process controlling DSB repair takes place at the step of DNA end resection, the nucleolytic processing of DNA ends, which generates singlestranded DNA overhangs. Dependent on the length of the overhang, a corresponding DSB repair mechanism is engaged. Interestingly, nucleosomes—the fundamental unit of
chromatin—influence the activity of resection nucleases and nucleosome remodelers have emerged as key regulators of DSB repair. Nucleosome remodelers share a common
enzymatic mechanism, but for global genome organization specific remodelers have been shown to exert distinct activities. Specifically, different remodelers have been found to slide and evict, position or edit nucleosomes. It is an open question whether the same
remodelers exert the same function also in the context of DSBs. Here, we will review recent advances in our understanding of nucleosome remodelers at DSBs: to what extent nucleosome sliding, eviction, positioning and editing can be observed at DSBs and how
these activities affect the DSB repair decision
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