13,448 research outputs found
Long-lived Giant Number Fluctuations in a Swarming Granular Nematic
Coherently moving flocks of birds, beasts or bacteria are examples of living
matter with spontaneous orientational order. How do these systems differ from
thermal equilibrium systems with such liquid-crystalline order? Working with a
fluidized monolayer of macroscopic rods in the nematic liquid crystalline
phase, we find giant number fluctuations consistent with a standard deviation
growing linearly with the mean, in contrast to any situation where the Central
Limit Theorem applies. These fluctuations are long-lived, decaying only as a
logarithmic function of time. This shows that flocking, coherent motion and
large-scale inhomogeneity can appear in a system in which particles do not
communicate except by contact.Comment: This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by
permission of the AAAS. The definitive version is to appear in SCIENC
Aspectos citológicos e bioquímicos da interação entre Mycosphaerella fijiensis e Musa sp.
A bananeira é cultivada em todas as regiões tropicais do mundo, sendo a banana a fruta de maior produção e comercialização mundial. Entretanto, a cultura da banana enfrenta o ataque de diversos patógenos que contribuem para redução de sua produtividade, notadamente a sigatoka negra, causada pelo fungo Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet, estádio anamórfico Paracercospora fijiensis (Morelet) Deighton. Apresentando ampla distribuição geográfica, a sigatoka negra causa a morte precoce das folhas infectadas sendo responsável por perdas superiores a 50% da produção. Para se defenderem de doenças e pragas, as plantas estão equipadas com as defesas constitutivas, naturalmente presentes na planta, funcionando como barreiras físicas, tais como a cutícula e os tricomas, e barreiras químicas, incluindo os inibidores de proteases, fenóis, PR-Proteínas e enzimas do estresse oxidativo, e as defesas induzidas. Este trabalho relata as avaliações citológicas e bioquímicas decorrentes da interação entre o fungo M. fijiensis e Musa sp., demonstrando os índices de germinação e penetração de esporos e os níveis de atividades de enzimas ligadas ao mecanismo de defesa da bananeira
Proteasome Lid Bridges Mitochondrial Stress with Cdc53/Cullin1 NEDDylation Status
Cycles of Cdc53/Cullin1 rubylation (a.k.a NEDDylation) protect ubiquitin-E3 SCF (Skp1-Cullin1-F-box protein) complexes from self-destruction and play an important role in mediating the ubiquitination of key protein substrates involved in cell cycle progression, development, and survival. Cul1 rubylation is balanced by the COP9 signalosome (CSN), a multi-subunit derubylase that shows 1:1 paralogy to the 26 S proteasome lid. The turnover of SCF substrates and their relevance to various diseases is well studied, yet, the extent by which environmental perturbations influence Cul1 rubylation/derubylation cycles per se is still unclear. In this study, we show that the level of cellular oxidation serves as a molecular switch, determining Cullin1 rubylation/derubylation ratio. We describe a mutant of the proteasome lid subunit, Rpn11 that exhibits accumulated levels of Cullin1-Rub1 conjugates, a characteristic phenotype of csn mutants. By dissecting between distinct phenotypes of rpn11 mutants, proteasome and mitochondria dysfunction, we were able to recognize the high reactive oxygen species (ROS) production during the transition of cells into mitochondrial respiration, as a checkpoint of Cullin1 rubylation in a reversible manner. Thus, the study adds the rubylation cascade to the list of cellular pathways regulated by redox homeostasis
Crossover of interface growth dynamics during corrosion and passivation
We study a model of corrosion and passivation of a metalic surface in contact
with a solution using scaling arguments and simulation. The passive layer is
porous so that the metal surface is in contact with the solution. The volume
excess of the products may suppress the access of the solution to the metal
surface, but it is then restored by a diffusion mechanism. A metalic site in
contact with the solution or with the porous layer can be passivated with rate
p and volume excess diffuses with rate D. At small times, the corrosion front
linearly grows in time, but the growth velocity shows a t^{-1/2} decrease after
a crossover time of order t_c ~ D/p^2, where the average front height is of
order h_c ~ D/p. A universal scaling relation between h/h_c and t/t_c is
proposed and confirmed by simulation for 0.00005 <= p <= 0.5 in square
lattices. The roughness of the corrosion front shows a crossover from
Kardar-Parisi-Zhang scaling to Laplacian growth (diffusion-limited erosion -
DLE) at t_c. The amplitudes of roughness scaling are obtained by the same kind
of arguments as previously applied to other competitive growth models. The
simulation results confirm their validity. Since the proposed model captures
the essential ingredients of different corrosion processes, we also expect
these universal features to appear in real systems.Comment: 17 pages, including 7 figures; submitted articl
On the search for the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals: The negative longitudinal magnetoresistance
Recently, the existence of massless chiral (Weyl) fermions has been
postulated in a class of semi-metals with a non-trivial energy dispersion.These
materials are now commonly dubbed Weyl semi-metals (WSM).One predicted property
of Weyl fermions is the chiral or Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly, a chirality
imbalance in the presence of parallel magnetic and electric fields. In WSM, it
is expected to induce a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (NMR), the
chiral magnetic effect.Here, we present experimental evidence that the
observation of the chiral magnetic effect can be hindered by an effect called
"current jetting". This effect also leads to a strong apparent NMR, but it is
characterized by a highly non-uniform current distribution inside the sample.
It appears in materials possessing a large field-induced anisotropy of the
resistivity tensor, such as almost compensated high-mobility semimetals due to
the orbital effect.In case of a non-homogeneous current injection, the
potential distribution is strongly distorted in the sample.As a consequence, an
experimentally measured potential difference is not proportional to the
intrinsic resistance.Our results on the MR of the WSM candidate materials NbP,
NbAs, TaAs, TaP exhibit distinct signatures of an inhomogeneous current
distribution, such as a field-induced "zero resistance' and a strong dependence
of the `measured resistance" on the position, shape, and type of the voltage
and current contacts on the sample. A misalignment between the current and the
magnetic-field directions can even induce a "negative resistance".
Finite-element simulations of the potential distribution inside the sample,
using typical resistance anisotropies, are in good agreement with the
experimental findings. Our study demonstrates that great care must be taken
before interpreting measurements of a NMR as evidence for the chiral anomaly in
putative Weyl semimetals.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
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