Strain versus stress in a model granular material: a Devil's staircase

The series of equilibrium states reached by disordered packings of rigid, frictionless discs in two dimensions, under gradually varying stress, are studied by numerical simulations. Statistical properties of trajectories in configuration space are found to be independent of specific assumptions ruling granular dynamics, and determined by geometry only. A monotonic increase in some macroscopic loading parameter causes a discrete sequence of rearrangements. For a biaxial compression, we show that, due to the statistical importance of such events of large magnitudes, the dependence of the resulting strain on stress direction is a Levy flight in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages, 5 included PostScript figures. New version altered throughout text, very close to published pape

Excessive growth hormone expression in male GH transgenic mice adversely alters bone architecture and mechanical strength

Patients with acromegaly have a higher prevalence of vertebral fractures despite normal bone mineral density (BMD), suggesting that GH overexpression has adverse effects on skeletal architecture and strength. We used giant bovine GH (bGH) transgenic mice to analyze the effects of high serum GH levels on BMD, architecture, and mechanical strength. Five-month-old hemizygous male bGH mice were compared with age- and sex-matched nontransgenic littermates controls (NT; n=16/group). Bone architecture and BMD were analyzed in tibia and lumbar vertebrae using microcomputed tomography. Femora were tested to failure using three-point bending and bone cellular activity determined by bone histomorphometry. bGH transgenic mice displayed significant increases in body weight and bone lengths. bGH tibia showed decreases in trabecular bone volume fraction, thickness, and number compared with NT ones, whereas trabecular pattern factor and structure model index were significantly increased, indicating deterioration in bone structure. Although cortical tissue perimeter was increased in transgenic mice, cortical thickness was reduced. bGH mice showed similar trabecular BMD but reduced trabecular thickness in lumbar vertebra relative to controls. Cortical BMD and thickness were significantly reduced in bGH lumbar vertebra. Mechanical testing of femora confirmed that bGH femora have decreased intrinsic mechanical properties compared with NT ones. Bone turnover is increased in favor of bone resorption in bGH tibia and vertebra compared with controls, and serum PTH levels is also enhanced in bGH mice. These data collectively suggest that high serum GH levels negatively affect bone architecture and quality at multiple skeletal sites

Realization of a superconducting atom chip

We have trapped rubidium atoms in the magnetic field produced by a superconducting atom chip operated at liquid Helium temperatures. Up to $8.2\cdot 10^5$ atoms are held in a Ioffe-Pritchard trap at a distance of 440 $\mu$m from the chip surface, with a temperature of 40 $\mu$K. The trap lifetime reaches 115 s at low atomic densities. These results open the way to the exploration of atom--surface interactions and coherent atomic transport in a superconducting environment, whose properties are radically different from normal metals at room temperature.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

A Model for Granular Texture with Steric Exclusion

We propose a new method to characterize the geometrical texture of a granular packing at the particle scale including the steric hindrance effect. This method is based on the assumption of a maximum disorder (entropy) compatible both with strain-induced anisotropy of the contact network and steric exclusions. We show that the predicted statistics for the local configurations is in a fairly agreement with our numerical data.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Using genotyping-by-sequencing to understand Musa diversity

Poster presented at Plant and Animal Genome, PAG XXII. San Diego (USA), 11-15 Jan 201

Chronic administration of Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists improves trabecular bone mass and architecture in ovariectomised mice

Some anti-diabetic therapies can have adverse effects on bone health and increase fracture risk. In this study, we tested the skeletal effects of chronic administration of two Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA), increasingly used for type 2 diabetes treatment, in a model of osteoporosis associated bone loss and examined the expression and activation of GLP-1R in bone cells. Mice were ovariectomised (OVX) to induce bone loss and four weeks later they were treated with Liraglutide (LIR) 0.3 mg/kg/day, Exenatide (Ex-4) 10 μg/kg/day or saline for four weeks. Mice were injected with calcein and alizarin red prior to euthanasia, to label bone-mineralising surfaces. Tibial micro-architecture was determined by micro-CT and bone formation and resorption parameters measured by histomorphometric analysis. Serum was collected to measure calcitonin and sclerostin levels, inhibitors of bone resorption and formation, respectively. GLP-1R mRNA and protein expression were evaluated in the bone, bone marrow and bone cells using RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Primary osteoclasts and osteoblasts were cultured to evaluate the effect of GLP-1RA on bone resorption and formation in vitro. GLP-1RA significantly increased trabecular bone mass, connectivity and structure parameters but had no effect on cortical bone. There was no effect of GLP-1RA on bone formation in vivo but an increase in osteoclast number and osteoclast surfaces was observed with Ex-4. GLP-1R was expressed in bone marrow cells, primary osteoclasts and osteoblasts and in late osteocytic cell line. Both Ex-4 and LIR stimulated osteoclastic differentiation in vitro but slightly reduced the area resorbed per osteoclast. They had no effect on bone nodule formation in vitro. Serum calcitonin levels were increased and sclerostin levels decreased by Ex-4 but not by LIR. Thus, GLP-1RA can have beneficial effects on bone and the expression of GLP-1R in bone cells may imply that these effects are exerted directly on the tissue

Internal states of model isotropic granular packings. III. Elastic properties

In this third and final paper of a series, elastic properties of numerically simulated isotropic packings of spherical beads assembled by different procedures and subjected to a varying confining pressure P are investigated. In addition P, which determines the stiffness of contacts by Hertz's law, elastic moduli are chiefly sensitive to the coordination number, the possible values of which are not necessarily correlated with the density. Comparisons of numerical and experimental results for glass beads in the 10kPa-10MPa range reveal similar differences between dry samples compacted by vibrations and lubricated packings. The greater stiffness of the latter, in spite of their lower density, can hence be attributed to a larger coordination number. Voigt and Reuss bounds bracket bulk modulus B accurately, but simple estimation schemes fail for shear modulus G, especially in poorly coordinated configurations under low P. Tenuous, fragile networks respond differently to changes in load direction, as compared to load intensity. The shear modulus, in poorly coordinated packings, tends to vary proportionally to the degree of force indeterminacy per unit volume. The elastic range extends to small strain intervals, in agreement with experimental observations. The origins of nonelastic response are discussed. We conclude that elastic moduli provide access to mechanically important information about coordination numbers, which escape direct measurement techniques, and indicate further perspectives.Comment: Published in Physical Review E 25 page

The divergence history of the perennial plant Linaria cavanillesii confirms a recent loss of self-incompatibility.

Many angiosperms prevent inbreeding through a self-incompatibility (SI) system, but the loss of SI has been frequent in their evolutionary history. The loss of SI may often lead to an increase in the selfing rate, with the purging of inbreeding depression and the ultimate evolution of a selfing syndrome, where plants have smaller flowers with reduced pollen and nectar production. In this study, we used approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) to estimate the timing of divergence between populations of the plant Linaria cavanillesii that differ in SI status and in which SI is associated with low inbreeding depression but not with a transition to full selfing or a selfing syndrome. Our analysis suggests that the mixed-mating self-compatible (SC) population may have begun to diverge from the SI populations around 2810 generation ago, a period perhaps too short for the evolution of a selfing syndrome. We conjecture that the SC population of L. cavanillesii is at an intermediate stage of transition between outcrossing and selfing