Top-side ionosphere response to extreme solar events

International audienceStrong X-flares and solar energetic particle (SEP) fluxes are considered as sources of topside ionospheric disturbances observed by the ROCSAT-1/IPEI instrument during the Bastille Day event on 14 July 2000 and the Halloween event on 28 October?4 November 2003. It was found that within a prestorm period in the dayside ionosphere at altitudes of ~600 km the ion density increased up to ~80% in response to flare-associated enhancements of the solar X-ray emission. Ionospheric response to the SEP events was revealed both at sunlit and nightside hemispheres, where the ion density increased up to ~40% and 100%, respectively. We did not find any prominent response of the ion temperature to the X-ray and SEP enhancements. The largest X-ray and SEP impacts were found for the X17 solar flare on 28 October 2003, which was characterized by the most intense fluxes of solar EUV (Tsurutani et al., 2005) and relativistic solar particles (Veselovsky et al., 2004). Solar events on 14 July 2000 and 29 October 2003 demonstrate weaker impacts with respect to their X-ray and SEP intensities. The weakest ionospheric response is observed for the limb X28 solar flare on 4 November 2003. The topside ionosphere response to the extreme solar events is interpreted in terms of the short-duration impact of the solar electromagnetic radiation and the long-lasting impact of the SEP

Hysteresis of the Contact Angle of a Meniscus Inside a Capillary with Smooth, Homogeneous Solid Walls

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Langmuir: the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b00721.A theory of contact angle hysteresis of a meniscus inside thin capillaries with smooth, homogeneous solid walls is developed in terms of surface forces (disjoining/ conjoining pressure isotherm) using a quasi-equilibrium approach. The disjoining /conjoining pressure isotherm includes electrostatic, intermolecular, and structural components. The values of the static receding θr, advancing θa , and equilibrium θe contact angles in thin capillaries were calculated on the basis of the shape of the disjoining/conjoining pressure isotherm. It was shown that both advancing and receding contact angles depend on the capillary radius. The suggested mechanism of the contact angle hysteresis has a direct experimental confirmation: the process of receding is accompanied by the formation of thick β-films on the capillary walls. The effect of the transition from partial to complete wetting in thin capillaries is predicted and analyzed. This effect takes place in very thin capillaries, when the receding contact angle decreases to zero

Modularity in Protein Complex and Drug Interactions Reveals New Polypharmacological Properties

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of interconnectivity in a large range of molecular and human disease-related systems. Network medicine has emerged as a new paradigm to deal with complex diseases. Connections between protein complexes and key diseases have been suggested for decades. However, it was not until recently that protein complexes were identified and classified in sufficient amounts to carry out a large-scale analysis of the human protein complex system. We here present the first systematic and comprehensive set of relationships between protein complexes and associated drugs and analyzed their topological features. The network structure is characterized by a high modularity, both in the bipartite graph and in its projections, indicating that its topology is highly distinct from a random network and that it contains a rich and heterogeneous internal modular structure. To unravel the relationships between modules of protein complexes, drugs and diseases, we investigated in depth the origins of this modular structure in examples of particular diseases. This analysis unveils new associations between diseases and protein complexes and highlights the potential role of polypharmacological drugs, which target multiple cellular functions to combat complex diseases driven by gain-of-function mutations

Hysteresis of Contact Angle of Sessile Droplets on Smooth Homogeneous Solid Substrates via Disjoining/Conjoining Pressure

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Langmuir copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b01075A theory of contact angle hysteresis of liquid droplets on smooth, homogeneous solid substrates is developed in terms of the shape of the disjoining/conjoining pressure isotherm and quasi-equilibrium phenomena. It is shown that all contact angles, θ, in the range θr < θ < θa, which are different from the unique equilibrium contact angle θ ≠ θe, correspond to the state of slow “microscopic” advancing or receding motion of the liquid if θe < θ < θa or θr < θ < θe, respectively. This “microscopic” motion almost abruptly becomes fast “macroscopic” advancing or receding motion after the contact angle reaches the critical values θa or θr, correspondingly. The values of the static receding, θr, and static advancing, θa, contact angles in cylindrical capillaries were calculated earlier, based on the shape of disjoining/conjoining pressure isotherm. It is shown now that (i) both advancing and receding contact angles of a droplet on a on smooth, homogeneous solid substrate can be calculated based on shape of disjoining/conjoining pressure isotherm, and (ii) both advancing and receding contact angles depend on the drop volume and are not unique characteristics of the liquid–solid system. The latter is different from advancing/receding contact angles in thin capillaries. It is shown also that the receding contact angle is much closer to the equilibrium contact angle than the advancing contact angle. The latter conclusion is unexpected and is in a contradiction with the commonly accepted view that the advancing contact angle can be taken as the first approximation for the equilibrium contact angle. The dependency of hysteresis contact angles on the drop volume has a direct experimental confirmation