2,141 research outputs found

    A Coronal Jet Ejects from Sunspot Light Bridge

    Full text link
    Chromospheric brighten and Hα\alpha surge are the evident and common phenomena along sunspot light bridge. In this paper, a coronal jet ejects from sunspot light bridge is presented. Using the data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Hinode satellites, it is confirmed that the jet has the root near light bridge, this suggests that the jet may be a result of reconnection between main sunspot and light bridge. Due to the processing of jet ejects, the intensity and width of light bridge have some changes at some extent. This also suggests that jet is related to the interaction between light bridge and umbra, possibly magnetic reconnection or heat plasma trapped in light bridge escaping and moving along field line.Comment: It has been accepted for publication in PAS

    Depletion gilding, innovation and life-histories: The changing colours of Nahuange metalwork

    Get PDF
    The technique of depletion gilding is well evidenced in pre-Columbian Andean gold work. Artefacts from the Nahuange period in Colombia (c. AD 100-1000) were subject to metallographic, chemical and microscopic analyses to provide regional comparative data on metalworking traditions. Results suggest that depletion gilding may have been an accidental discovery and, contrary to widespread assumptions, not always a desirable feature. This research illustrates how technological innovation may not always be immediately adopted, and considers how the life-history of gold artefacts may affect their appearance and microstructure. It also offers directions for future studies of depletion gilding elsewhere

    A Simple Kinetic Model Describes the Processivity of Myosin-V

    Get PDF
    Myosin-V is a motor protein responsible for organelle and vesicle transport in cells. Recent single-molecule experiments have shown that it is an efficient processive motor that walks along actin filaments taking steps of mean size close to 36 nm. A theoretical study of myosin-V motility is presented following an approach used successfully to analyze the dynamics of conventional kinesin but also taking some account of step-size variations. Much of the present experimental data for myosin-V can be well described by a two-state chemical kinetic model with three load-dependent rates. In addition, the analysis predicts the variation of the mean velocity and of the randomness -- a quantitative measure of the stochastic deviations from uniform, constant-speed motion -- with ATP concentration under both resisting and assisting loads, and indicates a {\it sub}step of size d0d_{0} \simeq 13-14 nm (from the ATP-binding site) that appears to accord with independent observations.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Biophys. J. in 200

    Subtidal macrozoobenthos communities from northern Chile during and post El Niño 1997–1998

    No full text
    Despite a large amount of climatic and oceanographic information dealing with the recurring climate phenomenon El Niño (EN) and its well known impact on diversity of marine benthic communities, most published data are rather descriptive and consequently our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and processes that drive community structure during EN are still very scarce. In this study, we address two questions on the effects of EN on macrozoobenthic communities: (1) how does EN affect species diversity of the communities in northern Chile? and (2) is EN a phenomenon that restarts community assembling processes by affecting species interactions in northern Chile? To answer these questions, we compared species diversity and co-occurrence patterns of soft-bottoms macrozoobenthos communities from the continental shelf off northern Chile during (March 1998) and after (September 1998) the strong EN event 1997–1998. The methods used varied from species diversity and species co-occurrence analyses to multivariate ordination methods. Our results indicate that EN positively affects diversity of macrozoobenthos communities in the study area, increasing the species richness and diversity and decreasing the species dominance. EN represents a strong disturbance that affects species interactions that rule the species assembling processes in shallow-water, sea-bottom environments

    Analyzing the tidal-related origin of subinertial flows through the Strait of Gibraltar

    Get PDF
    The effects of tidal dynamics on subinertial flows through the Strait of Gibraltar are analyzed. As found in previous studies, an empirical orthogonal function analysis of subinertial currents at the Camarinal Sill yields two dominant oscillation modes. The first mode presents a barotropic character and rather irregular fluctuations and it has been related to meteorological forcing. The second mode is baroclinic and presents a clear deterministic behavior with time that seems to be related to tidal forcing. Against the hypothesis proposed in previous studies stating that tidal mixing cycles explain the second mode, we show, by using a one-dimensional numerical model of two-layer immiscible shallow water, that the origin of this mode may basically be related to nonlinear interactions among the main semidiurnal tidal constituents through the advective terms in the momentum balance and other nonlinear terms in the volume conservation equations. That mode is also crucial to understanding the vertical shear time variations of the horizontal currents. In particular, it minimizes the differences in the maximum shear between neap and spring tides

    Percentile reference values for anthropometric body composition indices in European children from the IDEFICS study

    Get PDF
    INTRODUCTION: To characterise the nutritional status in children with obesity or wasting conditions, European anthropometric reference values for body composition measures beyond the body mass index (BMI) are needed. Differentiated assessment of body composition in children has long been hampered by the lack of appropriate references. OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study is to provide percentiles for body composition indices in normal weight European children, based on the IDEFICS cohort (Identification and prevention of Dietary-and lifestyle-induced health Effects in Children and infantS). METHODS: Overall 18 745 2.0-10.9-year-old children from eight countries participated in the study. Children classified as overweight/obese or underweight according to IOTF (N = 5915) were excluded from the analysis. Anthropometric measurements (BMI (N = 12 830); triceps, subscapular, fat mass and fat mass index (N = 11 845-11 901); biceps, suprailiac skinfolds, sum of skinfolds calculated from skinfold thicknesses (N = 8129-8205), neck circumference (N = 12 241); waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio (N = 12 381)) were analysed stratified by sex and smoothed 1st, 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 97th and 99th percentile curves were calculated using GAMLSS. RESULTS: Percentile values of the most important anthropometric measures related to the degree of adiposity are depicted for European girls and boys. Age-and sex-specific differences were investigated for all measures. As an example, the 50th and 99th percentile values of waist circumference ranged from 50.7-59.2 cm and from 51.3-58.7 cm in 4.5-to < 5.0-year-old girls and boys, respectively, to 60.6-74.5 cm in girls and to 59.9-76.7 cm in boys at the age of 10.5-10.9 years. CONCLUSION: The presented percentile curves may aid a differentiated assessment of total and abdominal adiposity in European children

    On the basic computational structure of gene regulatory networks

    Full text link
    Gene regulatory networks constitute the first layer of the cellular computation for cell adaptation and surveillance. In these webs, a set of causal relations is built up from thousands of interactions between transcription factors and their target genes. The large size of these webs and their entangled nature make difficult to achieve a global view of their internal organisation. Here, this problem has been addressed through a comparative study for {\em Escherichia coli}, {\em Bacillus subtilis} and {\em Saccharomyces cerevisiae} gene regulatory networks. We extract the minimal core of causal relations, uncovering the hierarchical and modular organisation from a novel dynamical/causal perspective. Our results reveal a marked top-down hierarchy containing several small dynamical modules for \textit{E. coli} and \textit{B. subtilis}. Conversely, the yeast network displays a single but large dynamical module in the middle of a bow-tie structure. We found that these dynamical modules capture the relevant wiring among both common and organism-specific biological functions such as transcription initiation, metabolic control, signal transduction, response to stress, sporulation and cell cycle. Functional and topological results suggest that two fundamentally different forms of logic organisation may have evolved in bacteria and yeast.Comment: This article is published at Molecular Biosystems, Please cite as: Carlos Rodriguez-Caso, Bernat Corominas-Murtra and Ricard V. Sole. Mol. BioSyst., 2009, 5 pp 1617--171

    Vicious and Virtuous Cycles and the Role of External Non-government Actors in Community Forestry in Oaxaca and Michoacán, Mexico

    Get PDF
    Community forestry offers potential for socioeconomic benefits while maintaining ecosystem services. In Mexico, government and donor efforts to develop this sector focus on issues within forest communities. Often overlooked are effects of external non-government actors (NGOs and foresters) as links or barriers between communities and funding, capacity building, and technical support. To analyze the role of these actors, I analyze household survey and interview data from 11 communities with varying levels of vertical integration of forestry production in states with divergent records of community forestry, Oaxaca and Michoacán. Results suggest that strong community governance is necessary but not sufficient for vertical integration, and strong interactions with non-government actors are critical. These actors, operating within the existing framework of government regulations, have a range of incentives for engaging communities. Availability of these actors motivated by concern for community capacity instead of timber income may be a determinant of community forestry development
    corecore