Geminivirus-Mediated Delivery of Florigen Promotes Determinate Growth in Aerial Organs and Uncouples Flowering from Photoperiod in Cotton

This article discusses geminivirus-mediated delivery of florigen. Florigen acts as a general growth hormone, advancing determinate growth. The findings extend our understanding of florigen as a general growth hormone and could benefit crop management techniques

Repression of Flowering by the miR172 Target SMZ

The flowering repressors SMZ and FLM, members of the AP-2 and MADS domain transcription factor families, unexpectedly work together to regulate flowering time via their effects on expression of the FT gene

EuPRAXIA - A Compact, Cost-Efficient Particle and Radiation Source

Plasma accelerators present one of the most suitable candidates for the development of more compact particle acceleration technologies, yet they still lag behind radiofrequency (RF)-based devices when it comes to beam quality, control, stability and power efficiency. The Horizon 2020-funded project EuPRAXIA (“European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications”) aims to overcome the first three of these hurdles by developing a conceptual design for a first international user facility based on plasma acceleration. In this paper we report on the main features, simulation studies and potential applications of this future research infrastructure

The effect of ion motion on rotating magnetic field current drive

The effect of ion motion on rotating magnetic field (RMF) current drive in field reversed configurations is studied using a fully two-dimensional numerical code that solves the two fluid equations with massless electrons and constant uniform temperature. The ion momentum equation includes viscosity and collisions with neutrals, which remain fixed. The electrons are described with an Ohm's law that includes the Hall and pressure gradient terms. For full penetration of the RMF, ion spin-up due to collisions with electrons reduces the current drive efficiency and a large fraction of neutrals is needed to prevent the ions from acquiring high azimuthal velocities. For conditions that would result in incomplete penetration with the fixed ion model, ion rotation and variable density can facilitate the penetration of the RMF, thus increasing the efficiency. The rotation modifies the density profile and can trigger rotational instabilities.456999101

Theoretical studies of non inductive current drive in compact toroids

Three non inductive current drive methods that can be applied to compact toroids axe studied. The use of neutral beams to drive current in field reversed configurations and spheromaks is studied using a Monte Carlo code that includes a complete ionization package and follows the exact particle orbits in a self-consistent equilibrium calculated including the beam and plasma currents, Rotating magnetic fields are investigated as a current drive method for spherical tokamaks by employing a two dimensional model with fixed ions and massless electrons. The time evolution of the axial components of the magnetic field and vector potential is obtained by combining an Ohm's law that includes the Hall term with Maxwell's equations. The use of helicity injection to sustain a flux core spheromak is studied using the principle of minimum rate of energy dissipation. The Euler-Lagrange equations obtained using helicity balance as a constraint axe solved to determine the current and magnetic field profiles of the relaxed states

Numerical modeling of the Linac4 negative ion source extraction region by 3D PIC-MCC code ONIX

At CERN, a high performance negative ion (NI) source is required for the 160 MeV H- linear accelerator Linac4. The source is planned to produce 80 mA of H- with an emittance of 0.25 mm mradN-RMS which is technically and scientifically very challenging. The optimization of the NI source requires a deep understanding of the underling physics concerning the production and extraction of the negative ions. The extraction mechanism from the negative ion source is complex involving a magnetic filter in order to cool down electrons’ temperature. The ONIX (Orsay Negative Ion eXtraction) code is used to address this problem. The ONIX is a selfconsistent 3D electrostatic code using Particles-in-Cell Monte Carlo Collisions (PIC-MCC) approach. It was written to handle the complex boundary conditions between plasma, source walls, and beam formation at the extraction hole. Both, the positive extraction potential (25kV) and the magnetic field map are taken from the experimental set-up, in construction at CERN. This contribution focuses on the modeling of two different extractors (IS01, IS02) of the Linac4 ion sources. The most efficient extraction system is analyzed via numerical parametric studies. The influence of aperture’s geometry and the strength of the magnetic filter field on the extracted electron and NI current will be discussed. The NI production of sources based on volume extraction and cesiated surface are also compared

Relativistic electron beams driven by kHz single-cycle light pulses

International audienceLaser-plasma acceleration(1,2) is an emerging technique for accelerating electrons to high energies over very short distances. The accelerated electron bunches have femtosecond duration(3,4), making them particularly relevant for applications such as ultrafast imaging(5) or femtosecond X-ray generation(6,7). Current laser-plasma accelerators deliver 100 MeV (refs 8-10) to GeV (refs 11, 12) electrons using Joule-class laser systems that are relatively large in scale and have low repetition rates, with a few shots per second at best. Nevertheless, extending laser-plasma acceleration to higher repetition rates would be extremely useful for applications requiring lower electron energy. Here, we use single-cycle laser pulses to drive high-quality MeV relativistic electron beams, thereby enabling kHz operation and dramatic downsizing of the laser system. Numerical simulations indicate that the electron bunches are only similar to 1 fs long. We anticipate that the advent of these kHz femtosecond relativistic electron sources will pave the way to applications with wide impact, such as ultrafast electron diffraction in materials(13,14) with an unprecedented sub-10 fs resolution(15)

Optimization of crop productivity in tomato using induced mutations in the florigen pathway

Naturally occurring genetic variation in the universal florigen flowering pathway has produced major advancements in crop domestication. However, variants that can maximize crop yields may not exist in natural populations. Here we show that tomato productivity can be fine-tuned and optimized by exploiting combinations of selected mutations in multiple florigen pathway components. By screening for chemically induced mutations that suppress the bushy, determinate growth habit of field tomatoes, we isolated a new weak allele of the florigen gene SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) and two mutations affecting a bZIP transcription factor component of the 'florigen activation complex' (ref. 11). By combining heterozygous mutations, we pinpointed an optimal balance of flowering signals, resulting in a new partially determinate architecture that translated to maximum yields. We propose that harnessing mutations in the florigen pathway to customize plant architecture and flower production offers a broad toolkit to boost crop productivity