Cassiosomes are stinging-cell structures in the mucus of the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Snorkelers in mangrove forest waters inhabited by the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana report discomfort due to a sensation known as stinging water, the cause of which is unknown. Using a combination of histology, microscopy, microfluidics, videography, molecular biology, and mass spectrometry-based proteomics, we describe C. xamachana stinging-cell structures that we term cassiosomes. These structures are released within C. xamachana mucus and are capable of killing prey. Cassiosomes consist of an outer epithelial layer mainly composed of nematocytes surrounding a core filled by endosymbiotic dinoflagellates hosted within amoebocytes and presumptive mesoglea. Furthermore, we report cassiosome structures in four additional jellyfish species in the same taxonomic group as C. xamachana (Class Scyphozoa; Order Rhizostomeae), categorized as either motile (ciliated) or nonmotile types. This inaugural study provides a qualitative assessment of the stinging contents of C. xamachana mucus and implicates mucus containing cassiosomes and free intact nematocytes as the cause of stinging water

Wave-packet recollision and pulse-shape effects in high-harmonic generation

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Numerical Modeling of the Spatial Profiles of High-order Harmonics

The far-field spatial distributions of high-order harmonics in an ionized medium have been investigated using a computer model that includes both the single atom effects and the collective effects of the medium. The results show that depletion of the non-linear medium due to ionization and radial phase variations across the gas jet cause broadening and complicated structures in the far-field spatial distributions. These phase variations are due to three factors: focusing, ionization, i.e. depletion of the non-linear medium and electron dispersion, and intensity-dependent phase variations of the atomic dipoles

Time-resolved Harmonic-generation In An Ionizing Gas

We report on a time-resolved study of the fifth harmonic generated in xenon by 140 ps pulses from a Nd:YAG laser in the 10(13) W cm-2 intensity regime. Absolute timing between the driving laser pulse and the harmonic pulse could be determined by means of reference harmonics generated in non-linear crystals and a single common streak camera. Above a certain laser intensity the centre of the observed harmonic pulse was shifted earlier in time relative to the laser pulse. We found the intensity dependence of this shift to be approximately linear within the intensity range used which is consistent with the results of numerical simulations taking the ionization and dispersion of the xenon gas into account

Studies of time-resolved harmonic generation in intense laser fields in xenon

We report preliminary experimental and computational studies of the temporal evolution of the harmonics, generated in xenon, by 50-ps pulses from a Nd: YLF laser, amplified in Nd: glass amplifiers, and focused to produce intensities in the range 1013--5 {\texttimes} 1013 W cm{\textminus}2. Measurements were made of the temporal profiles of the seventh- and ninth-order harmonics using a specially modified VUV streak camera with better than 7-ps temporal resolution. These results were compared with predictions of a numerical model that included the effects of neutral atom depletion and photoelectron dispersion in the calculation of the harmonic output as a function of time