Topological structure bifurcation of temperature field of deformable drop in Marangoni migration

AbstractThe unsteady processes of the Marangoni migration of deformable liquid drops are simulated numerically in a wider range of Marangoni number (up to Ma = 500) in the present work. A steady terminal state can always be reached, and the scaled terminal velocity is a monotonic function decreasing with increasing Marangoni number, which is generally in agreement with corresponding experimental data. The topological structure of flow field in the steady terminal state does not change as the Marangoni number increases, while bifurcation of the topological structure of temperature field occurs twice at two corresponding critical Marangoni numbers. A third critical value of Marangoni number also exists, beyond which the coldest point jumps from the rear stagnation to inside the drop though the topological structure of the temperature field does not change. It is found that the inner and outer thermal boundary layers may exist along the interface both inside and outside the drop if Ma > 70. But the thickness decreases with increasing Marangoni number more slowly than the prediction of potential flow at large Marangoni and Reynolds numbers

Antenna Positioning and Beamforming Design for Fluid-Antenna Enabled Multi-user Downlink Communications

This paper investigates a multiple input single output (MISO) downlink communication system in which users are equipped with fluid antennas (FAs). First, we adopt a field-response based channel model to characterize the downlink channel with respect to FAs' positions. Then, we aim to minimize the total transmit power by jointly optimizing the FAs' positions and beamforming matrix. To solve the resulting non-convex problem, we employ an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm based on penalty method and successive convex approximation (SCA) to obtain a sub-optimal solution. Numerical results demonstrate that the FA-assisted communication system performs better than conventional fixed position antennas system

Paternal Genetic Structure of Hainan Aborigines Isolated at the Entrance to East Asia

BACKGROUND: At the southern entrance to East Asia, early population migration has affected most of the Y-chromosome variations of East Asians. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To assess the isolated genetic structure of Hainan Island and the original genetic structure at the southern entrance, we studied the Y chromosome diversity of 405 Hainan Island aborigines from all the six populations, who have little influence of the recent mainland population relocations and admixtures. Here we report that haplogroups O1a* and O2a* are dominant among Hainan aborigines. In addition, the frequency of the mainland dominant haplogroup O3 is quite low among these aborigines, indicating that they have lived rather isolated. Clustering analyses suggests that the Hainan aborigines have been segregated since about 20 thousand years ago, after two dominant haplogroups entered East Asia (31 to 36 thousand years ago). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that Hainan aborigines have been isolated at the entrance to East Asia for about 20 thousand years, whose distinctive genetic characteristics could be used as important controls in many population genetic studies

miR-221/222 promotes S-phase entry and cellular migration in control of basal-like breast cancer.

The miR-221/222 cluster has been demonstrated to function as oncomiR in human cancers. miR-221/222 promotes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and confers tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer. However, the effects and mechanisms by which miR-221/222 regulates breast cancer aggressiveness remain unclear. Here we detected a much higher expression of miR-221/222 in highly invasive basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) cells than that in non-invasive luminal cells. A microRNA dataset from breast cancer patients indicated an elevated expression of miR-221/222 in BLBC subtype. S-phase entry of the cell cycle was associated with the induction of miR-221/222 expression. miRNA inhibitors specially targeting miR-221 or miR-222 both significantly suppressed cellular migration, invasion and G1/S transition of the cell cycle in BLBC cell types. Proteomic analysis demonstrated the down-regulation of two tumor suppressor genes, suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibit 1B (CDKN1B), by miR-221/222. This is the first report to reveal miR-221/222 regulation of G1/S transition of the cell cycle. These findings demonstrate that miR-221/222 contribute to the aggressiveness in control of BLBC

Potato NPH3/RPT2-like protein StNRL1, targeted by a Phytophthora infestans RXLR effector, is a susceptibility factor

Plant pathogens deliver effectors to manipulate host processes. We know little about how fungal and oomycete effectors target host proteins to promote susceptibility, yet such knowledge is vital to understand crop disease. We show that either transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana, or stable transgenic expression in potato (Solanum tuberosum), of the Phytophthora infestans RXLR effector Pi02860 enhances leaf colonization by the pathogen. Expression of Pi02860 also attenuates cell death triggered by the P. infestans microbe-associated molecular pattern INF1, indicating that the effector suppresses pattern-triggered immunity. However, the effector does not attenuate cell death triggered by Cf4/Avr4 coexpression, showing that it does not suppress all cell death activated by cell surface receptors. Pi02860 interacts in yeast two-hybrid assays with potato NPH3/RPT2-LIKE1 (NRL1), a predicted CULLIN3-associated ubiquitin E3 ligase. Interaction of Pi02860 in planta was confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays. Virus-induced gene silencing of NRL1 in N. benthamiana resulted in reduced P. infestans colonization and accelerated INF1-mediated cell death, indicating that this host protein acts as a negative regulator of immunity. Moreover, whereas NRL1 virus-induced gene silencing had no effect on the ability of the P. infestans effector Avr3a to suppress INF1-mediated cell death, such suppression by Pi02860 was significantly attenuated, indicating that this activity of Pi02860 is mediated by NRL1. Transient overexpression of NRL1 resulted in the suppression of INF1-mediated cell death and enhanced P. infestans leaf colonization, demonstrating that NRL1 acts as a susceptibility factor to promote late blight disease

Human Migration through Bottlenecks from Southeast Asia into East Asia during Last Glacial Maximum Revealed by Y Chromosomes

Molecular anthropological studies of the populations in and around East Asia have resulted in the discovery that most of the Y-chromosome lineages of East Asians came from Southeast Asia. However, very few Southeast Asian populations had been investigated, and therefore, little was known about the purported migrations from Southeast Asia into East Asia and their roles in shaping the genetic structure of East Asian populations. Here, we present the Y-chromosome data from 1,652 individuals belonging to 47 Mon-Khmer (MK) and Hmong-Mien (HM) speaking populations that are distributed primarily across Southeast Asia and extend into East Asia. Haplogroup O3a3b-M7, which appears mainly in MK and HM, indicates a strong tie between the two groups. The short tandem repeat network of O3a3b-M7 displayed a hierarchical expansion structure (annual ring shape), with MK haplotypes being located at the original point, and the HM and the Tibeto-Burman haplotypes distributed further away from core of the network. Moreover, the East Asian dominant haplogroup O3a3c1-M117 shows a network structure similar to that of O3a3b-M7. These patterns indicate an early unidirectional diffusion from Southeast Asia into East Asia, which might have resulted from the genetic drift of East Asian ancestors carrying these two haplogroups through many small bottle-necks formed by the complicated landscape between Southeast Asia and East Asia. The ages of O3a3b-M7 and O3a3c1-M117 were estimated to be approximately 19 thousand years, followed by the emergence of the ancestors of HM lineages out of MK and the unidirectional northward migrations into East Asia