A comparison of drift wave stability in stellarator and tokamak geometry

The influence of plasma geometry on the linear stability of electrostatic ion-temperature-gradient driven drift modes (ITG modes) is investigated. An advanced fluid model is used for the ions together with Boltzmann distributed electrons. The derived eigenvalue equation is solved numerically. A comparison is made between an H – 1NF [Fusion Technol. 17, 123 (1990)] like stellarator equilibrium, a numerical tokamak equilibrium and the analytical s - alpha equilibrium. The numerical and the analytical tokamak are found to be in good agreement in the low inverse aspect ratio limit. The growth rates of the tokamak and stellarator are comparable whereas the modulus of the real frequency is substantially larger in the stellarator. The threshold in Ln/LT for the stellarator is found to be somewhat larger. In addition, a stronger stabilization of the ITG mode growth is found for large L n / R in the stellarator case

Microwave Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection:Comparison of Tomographic Imaging Algorithms using Single-Frequency and Time-Domain Data

Still more research groups are promoting microwave imaging as a viable supplement or substitution to more conventional imaging modalities. A widespread approach for microwave imaging of the breast is tomographic imaging in which one seeks to reconstruct the distributions of permittivity and conductivity in the breast. In this paper two nonlinear tomographic algorithms are compared - one is a single-frequency algorithm and the other is a time-domain algorithm

Intragenic repeat expansion in the cell wall protein gene HPF1 controls yeast chronological aging

Aging varies among individuals due to both genetics and environment, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Using a highly recombined Saccharomyces cerevisiae population, we found 30 distinct quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control chronological life span (CLS) in calorie-rich and calorie-restricted environments and under rapamycin exposure. Calorie restriction and rapamycin extended life span in virtually all genotypes but through different genetic variants. We tracked the two major QTLs to the cell wall glycoprotein genes FLO11 and HPF1. We found that massive expansion of intragenic tandem repeats within the N-terminal domain of HPF1 was sufficient to cause pronounced life span shortening. Life span impairment by HPF1 was buffered by rapamycin but not by calorie restriction. The HPF1 repeat expansion shifted yeast cells from a sedentary to a buoyant state, thereby increasing their exposure to surrounding oxygen. The higher oxygenation altered methionine, lipid, and purine metabolism, and inhibited quiescence, which explains the life span shortening. We conclude that fast-evolving intragenic repeat expansions can fundamentally change the relationship between cells and their environment with profound effects on cellular lifestyle and longevity

Genetically controlled mtDNA deletions prevent ROS damage by arresting oxidative phosphorylation

Deletion of mitochondrial DNA in eukaryotes is currently attributed to rare accidental events associated with mitochondrial replication or repair of double-strand breaks. We report the discovery that yeast cells arrest harmful intramitochondrial superoxide production by shutting down respiration through genetically controlled deletion of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation genes. We show that this process critically involves the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase 2 and two-way mitochondrial-nuclear communication through Rtg2 and Rtg3. While mitochondrial DNA homeostasis is rapidly restored after cessation of a short-term superoxide stress, long-term stress causes maladaptive persistence of the deletion process, leading to complete annihilation of the cellular pool of intact mitochondrial genomes and irrevocable loss of respiratory ability. This shows that oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial impairment may be under strict regulatory control. If the results extend to human cells, the results may prove to be of etiological as well as therapeutic importance with regard to age-related mitochondrial impairment and disease

Longer Leukocyte Telomere Length Is Associated with Smaller Hippocampal Volume among Non-Demented APOE ε3/ε3 Subjects

Telomere length shortens with cellular division, and leukocyte telomere length is used as a marker for systemic telomere length. The hippocampus hosts adult neurogenesis and is an important structure for episodic memory, and carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele exhibit higher hippocampal atrophy rates and differing telomere dynamics compared with non-carriers. The authors investigated whether leukocyte telomere length was associated with hippocampal volume in 57 cognitively intact subjects (29 ε3/ε3 carriers; 28 ε4 carriers) aged 49–79 yr. Leukocyte telomere length correlated inversely with left (rs = −0.465; p = 0.011), right (rs = −0.414; p = 0.025), and total hippocampus volume (rs = −0.519; p = 0.004) among APOE ε3/ε3 carriers, but not among ε4 carriers. However, the ε4 carriers fit with the general correlation pattern exhibited by the ε3/ε3 carriers, as ε4 carriers on average had longer telomeres and smaller hippocampi compared with ε3/ε3 carriers. The relationship observed can be interpreted as long telomeres representing a history of relatively low cellular proliferation, reflected in smaller hippocampal volumes. The results support the potential of leukocyte telomere length being used as a biomarker for tapping functional and structural processes of the aging brain

Replication Data for: Patrimonial Economic Voting and Asset Value

Information on the data used in the article: Mikael Persson & Johan Martinsson, “Patrimonial Economic Voting and Asset Value - New Evidence from Taxation Register Data” in British Journal of Political Science. In order to get access to the register data used for this article the authors had to sign a contract stating that they were not allowed to make the data publicly available. Moreover, the authors were only allowed to analyze the data using Statistics Sweden’s remote server system MONA. The dataset and stata do-files used to carry out the analyses are stored at Statistics Sweden in Stockholm. Researchers interested in getting access to the data should contact Statistics Sweden (contact person: Jonas Olofsson, [email protected]) and request access to the files vu06+inc.dta and PerssonMartinssonBJPSreplication.do. However, Swedish register data is only possible to get access to for people affiliated with Swedish universities or governments authorities. In order to get access to register data researchers must first get an approval for their research project at the Central Ethical Review Board, for further information see http://www.epn.se. The raw data used for this article comes from the Swedish National Election Studies 2006 (Svensk valundersökning 2006) and the Income and Wealth Register 2006 (Inkomst- och Förmögenhetsregistret 2006). The do-file running the analyses is uploaded on dataverse

Comparison of electron drift waves in numerical and analytical tokamak equilibria

In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of the details of the equilibria on the stability of electron drift waves. A comparison of electrostatic electron drift waves in numerical and analytical tokamak equilibria is presented in fully three-dimensional circular and non-circular tokamaks. The numerical equilibria are obtained using the variational moments equilibrium code and the analytical equilibria used is the generalized ŝ-α model. An eigenvalue equation for the model is derived using the ballooning mode formalism and solved numerically using a standard shooting technique. The stability and the localization of the electron drift wave is found to be strongly dependent on the local shear of the magnetic field. Large values of the local shear are found to be stabilizing. A disagreement in the results is found between analytical and numerical equilibria at aspect ratios of typical tokamaks, suggesting that the latter approach should be used in the transport calculations. The effects of the local shaping of the magnetic surfaces are complicated and can be both stabilizing and destabilizing, depending on the details of the equilibria