Opposite polarity field with convective downflow and its relation to magnetic spines in a sunspot penumbra

We discuss NICOLE inversions of Fe I 630.15 nm and 630.25 nm Stokes spectra from a sunspot penumbra recorded with the CRISP imaging spectropolarimeter on the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope at a spatial resolution close to 0.15". We report on narrow radially extended lanes of opposite polarity field, located at the boundaries between areas of relatively horizontal magnetic field (the intra-spines) and much more vertical field (the spines). These lanes harbor convective downflows of about 1 km/s. The locations of these downflows close to the spines agree with predictions from the convective gap model (the "gappy penumbra") proposed six years ago, and more recent 3D MHD simulations. We also confirm the existence of strong convective flows throughout the entire penumbra, showing the expected correlation between temperature and vertical velocity, and having vertical RMS velocities of about 1.2 km/s.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (06-March-2013). Minor corrections made in this version

Molecular characterization of autophagic and apoptotic signaling induced by sorafenib in liver cancer cells

Sorafenib is the unique accepted molecular targeted drug for the treatment of patients in advanced stage of hepatocellular carcinoma. The current study evaluated cell signaling regulation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), Akt, and 5′AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) leading to autophagy and apoptosis induced by sorafenib. Sorafenib induced early (3–12 hr) ER stress characterized by an increase of Ser51P-eIF2α/eIF2α, C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), IRE1α, and sXBP1, but a decrease of activating transcription factor 6 expression, overall temporally associated with the increase of Thr183,Tyr185P-JNK1/2/JNK1/2, Thr172P-AMPKα, Ser413P-Foxo3a, Thr308P-AKt/AKt and Thr32P-Foxo3a/Foxo3a ratios, and reduction of Ser2481P-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/mTOR and protein translation. This pattern was related to a transient increase of tBid, Bim EL, Beclin-1, Bcl-xL, Bcl-2, autophagy markers, and reduction of myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) expression. The progressive increase of CHOP expression, and reduction of Thr308P-AKt/AKt and Ser473P-AKt/AKt ratios were associated with the reduction of autophagic flux and an additional upregulation of Bim EL expression and caspase-3 activity (24 hr). Small interfering-RNA (si-RNA) assays showed that Bim, but not Bak and Bax, was involved in the induction of caspase-3 in sorafenib-treated HepG2 cells. Sorafenib increased autophagic and apoptotic markers in tumor-derived xenograft model. In conclusion, the early sorafenib-induced ER stress and regulation of JNK and AMPK-dependent signaling were related to the induction of survival autophagic process. The sustained drug treatment induced a progressive increase of ER stress and PERK-CHOP-dependent rise of Bim EL, which was associated with the shift from autophagy to apoptosis. The kinetic of Bim EL expression profile might also be related to the tight balance between AKt- and AMPK-related signaling leading to Foxo3a-dependent BIM EL upregulation.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2016‐75352‐PInstituto de Salud Carlos III PI15/00034, PI13/ 00021, PI16/00090, PI14/01349Ministerio de Educación FPU16/05127, FPU12/01433, FPU13/01237Junta de Andalucía CTS-6264, PI-00025-2013, PI-0127-2013, PI-0198-201

Gromov hyperbolicity in strong product graphs

If X is a geodesic metric space and x1; x2; x3 2 X, a geodesic triangle T = fx1; x2; x3g is the union of the three geodesics [x1x2], [x2x3] and [x3x1] in X. The space X is -hyperbolic (in the Gromov sense) if any side of T is contained in a -neighborhood of the union of the two other sides, for every geodesic triangle T in X. If X is hyperbolic, we denote by (X) the sharp hyperbolicity constant of X, i.e. (X) = inff > 0 : X is -hyperbolic g : In this paper we characterize the strong product of two graphs G1 G2 which are hyperbolic, in terms of G1 and G2: the strong product graph G1 G2 is hyperbolic if and only if one of the factors is hyperbolic and the other one is bounded. We also prove some sharp relations between (G1 G2), (G1), (G2) and the diameters of G1 and G2 (and we nd families of graphs for which the inequalities are attained). Furthermore, we obtain the exact values of the hyperbolicity constant for many strong product graphs

Dual encoding of muscle tension and eye position by abducens motoneurons

Extraocular muscle tension associated with spontaneous eye movements has a pulse-slide-step profile similar to that of motoneuron firing rate. Existing models only relate motoneuron firing to eye position, velocity and acceleration. We measured and quantitatively compared lateral rectus muscle force and eye position with the firing of abducens motoneurons in the cat to determine fundamental encoding correlations. During fixations (step), muscle force increased exponentially with eccentric eye position, consistent with a model of estimate ensemble motor innervation based on neuronal sensitivities and recruitment order. Moreover, firing rate in all motoneurons tested was better related to eye position than to muscle tension during fixations. In contrast, during the postsaccadic slide phase, the time constant of firing rate decay was closely related to that of muscle force decay, suggesting that all motoneurons encode muscle tension as well. Discharge characteristics of abducens motoneurons formed overlapping clusters of phasic and tonic motoneurons, thus, tonic units recruited earlier and had a larger slide signal. We conclude that the slide signal is a discharge characteristic of the motoneuron that controls muscle tension during the postsaccadic phase and that motoneurons are specialized for both tension and position-related properties. The organization of signal content in the pool of abducens motoneurons from the very phasic to the very tonic units is possibly a result of the differential trophic background received from distinct types of muscle fibers

A reconnection driven magnetic flux cancellation and a quiet Sun Ellerman bomb

The focus of this investigation is to quantify the conversion of magnetic to thermal energy initiated by a quiet Sun cancellation event and to explore the resulting dynamics from the interaction of the opposite polarity magnetic features. We used imaging spectroscopy in the H$\alpha$ line, along with spectropolarimetry in the \ion{Fe}{I} 6173~{\AA} and \ion{Ca}{II} 8542~{\AA} lines from the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST) to study a reconnection-related cancellation and the appearance of a quiet Sun Ellerman bomb (QSEB). We observed, for the first time, QSEB signature in both the wings and core of the \ion{Fe}{I} 6173~{\AA} line. We also found that, at times, the \ion{Fe}{I} line-core intensity reaches higher values than the quiet Sun continuum intensity. From FIRTEZ-dz inversions of the Stokes profiles in \ion{Fe}{I} and \ion{Ca}{II} lines, we found enhanced temperature, with respect to the quiet Sun values, at the photospheric ($\log\tau_c$ = -1.5; $\sim$1000 K) and lower chromospheric heights ($\log\tau_c$ = -4.5; $\sim$360 K). From the calculation of total magnetic energy and thermal energy within these two layers it was confirmed that the magnetic energy released during the flux cancellation can support heating in the aforesaid height range. Further, the temperature stratification maps enabled us to identify cumulative effects of successive reconnection on temperature pattern, including recurring temperature enhancements. Similarly, Doppler velocity stratification maps revealed impacts on plasma flow pattern, such as a sudden change in the flow direction.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Stokes imaging polarimetry using image restoration: A calibration strategy for Fabry-P\'{e}rot based instruments

context: The combination of image restoration and a Fabry-P\'{e}rot interferometer (FPI) based instrument in solar observations results in specific calibration issues. FPIs generally show variations over the field-of-view, while in the image restoration process, the 1-to-1 relation between pixel space and image space is lost, thus complicating any correcting for such variations. aims: We develop a data reduction method that takes these issues into account and minimizes the resulting errors. methods: By accounting for the time variations in the telescope's Mueller matrix and using separate calibration data optimized for the wavefront sensing in the MOMFBD image restoration process and for the final deconvolution of the data, we have removed most of the calibration artifacts from the resulting data. results: Using this method to reduce full Stokes data from CRISP at the SST, we find that it drastically reduces the instrumental and image restoration artifacts resulting from cavity errors, reflectivity variations, and the polarization dependence of flatfields. The results allow for useful scientific interpretation. Inversions of restored data from the $\delta$ sunspot AR11029 using the Nicole inversion code, reveal strong (~10 km/s) downflows near the disk center side of the umbra. conclusions: The use of image restoration in combination with an FPI-based instrument leads to complications in the calibrations and intrinsic limitations to the accuracy that can be achieved. We find that for CRISP, the resulting errors can be kept mostly below the polarimetric accuracy of ~10^-3. Similar instruments aiming for higher polarimetric and high spectroscopic accuracy, will, however, need to take these problems into account. keywords: Techniques: image processing, polarimetric, imaging spectroscopy, Sun: surface magnetism, sunspots, activityComment: Astronomy and Astrophysics (accepted

The cross helicity at the solar surface by simulations and observations

The quasilinear mean-field theory for driven MHD turbulence leads to the result that the observed cross helicity may directly yield the magnetic eddy diffusivity \eta_{T} of the quiet Sun. In order to model the cross helicity at the solar surface, magnetoconvection under the presence of a vertical large-scale magnetic field is simulated with the nonlinear MHD code NIRVANA. The very robust result of the calculations is that \simeq 2 independent of the applied magnetic field amplitude. The correlation coefficient for the cross helicity is about 10%. Of similar robustness is the finding that the rms value of the magnetic perturbations exceeds the mean-field amplitude (only) by a factor of five. The characteristic helicity speed u_{\eta} as the ratio of the eddy diffusivity and the density scale height for an isothermal sound velocity of 6.6 km/s proves to be 1 km/s for weak fields. This value well coincides with empirical results obtained from the data of the HINODE satellite and the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) providing the cross helicity component . Both simulations and observations thus lead to a numerical value of \eta_{T} \simeq 10^12 cm^2 /s as characteristic for the surface of the quiet Sun.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure