Sheared bioconvection in a horizontal tube

The recent interest in using microorganisms for biofuels is motivation enough to study bioconvection and cell dispersion in tubes subject to imposed flow. To optimize light and nutrient uptake, many microorganisms swim in directions biased by environmental cues (e.g. phototaxis in algae and chemotaxis in bacteria). Such taxes inevitably lead to accumulations of cells, which, as many microorganisms have a density different to the fluid, can induce hydrodynamic instabilites. The large-scale fluid flow and spectacular patterns that arise are termed bioconvection. However, the extent to which bioconvection is affected or suppressed by an imposed fluid flow, and how bioconvection influences the mean flow profile and cell transport are open questions. This experimental study is the first to address these issues by quantifying the patterns due to suspensions of the gravitactic and gyrotactic green biflagellate alga Chlamydomonas in horizontal tubes subject to an imposed flow. With no flow, the dependence of the dominant pattern wavelength at pattern onset on cell concentration is established for three different tube diameters. For small imposed flows, the vertical plumes of cells are observed merely to bow in the direction of flow. For sufficiently high flow rates, the plumes progressively fragment into piecewise linear diagonal plumes, unexpectedly inclined at constant angles and translating at fixed speeds. The pattern wavelength generally grows with flow rate, with transitions at critical rates that depend on concentration. Even at high imposed flow rates, bioconvection is not wholly suppressed and perturbs the flow field.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, published version available at http://iopscience.iop.org/1478-3975/7/4/04600

Application of microneedle arrays for enhancement of transdermal permeation of Insulin: in vitro experiments, scaling analyses and numerical simulations

The aim of this investigation is to study the effect of donor concentration and microneedle (MN) length on permeation of insulin and further evaluating the data using scaling analyses and numerical simulations. Histological evaluation of skin sections was carried to evaluate the skin disruption and depth of penetration by MNs. Scaling analyses was done using dimensionless parameters like concentration of drug (Ct/Cs), thickness (h/L) and surface area of the skin (Sa/L2). Simulation studies were carried out using MATLAB and COMSOL software to simulate the insulin permeation using histological sections of MN treated skin and experimental parameters like passive diffusion coefficient. A 1.6 fold increase in transdermal flux and 1.9 fold decrease in lag time values were observed with 1.5mm MN when compared with passive studies. Good correlation (R2>0.99) was observed between different parameters using scaling analyses. Also, the in vitro and simulated permeations profiles were found to be similar (f2≥50). Insulin permeation significantly increased with increase in donor concentration and MN length (p<0.05). The developed scaling correlations and numerical simulations were found to be accurate and would help researchers to predict the permeation of insulin with new dimensions of MN in optimizing insulin delivery. Overall, it can be inferred that the application of MNs can significantly enhance insulin permeation and may be an efficient alternative for injectable insulin therapy in humans

Aphids-induced plant volatiles affect diel foraging behavior of a ladybird beetle Coccinella septempunctata

The ladybird beetle Coccinella septempunctata (L.) is an important biocontrol agent of pests such as various aphid species. Despite being one of the most studied coccinellid species, many aspects of its foraging behavior are still not completely understood. This study focuses on the diel foraging behavior of C. septempunctata, investigating their olfactory orientation toward aphid-infested plants, walking activity on plants and on the soil, and feeding rates. In the scotophase the ladybird beetles were significantly more attracted to the odor of aphid-infested plants, on which they also showed considerably higher walking activity then on uninfested controls. Females were more prone to utilize olfactory cues when searching for prey and fed at higher rates than males; this shows that they are better adapted to nocturnal activity, as they require higher food intake. Coccinella septempunctata have the same feeding rate during the scotophase as in the photophase. Our study shows that C. septempunctata has the potential to forage in the scotophase if prey is abundant. The results support the hypothesis that volatiles of aphid-infested plants can attract or arrest foraging adult ladybird beetles, even in the darkness, which makes a considerable contribution to efficient prey search and enhances feeding capacity

The revival-collapse phenomenon in the quadrature field components of the two-mode multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model

In this paper we consider a system consisting of a two-level atom in an excited state interacting with two modes of a radiation field prepared initially in $l$-photon coherent states. This system is described by two-mode multiphoton (, i.e., $k_1, k_2$) Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM). For this system we investigate the occurrence of the revival-collapse phenomenon (RCP) in the evolution of the single-mode, two-mode, sum and difference quadrature squeezing. We show that there is a class of states for which all these types of squeezing exhibit RCP similar to that involved in the corresponding atomic inversion. Also we show numerically that the single-mode squeezing of the first mode for $(k_1,k_2)=(3,1)$ provides RCP similar to that of the atomic inversion of the case $(k_1,k_2)=(1,1)$, however, sum and difference squeezing give partial information on that case. Moreover, we show that single-mode, two-mode and sum squeezing for the case $(k_1,k_2)=(2,2)$ provide information on the atomic inversion of the single-mode two-photon JCM. We derive the rescaled squeezing factors giving accurate information on the atomic inversion for all cases. The consequences of these results are that the homodyne and heterodyne detectors can be used to detect the RCP for the two-mode JCM.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Delineation of dominant and recessive forms of LZTR1-associated Noonan syndrome.

Noonan syndrome (NS) is characterised by distinctive facial features, heart defects, variable degrees of intellectual disability and other phenotypic manifestations. Although the mode of inheritance is typically dominant, recent studies indicate LZTR1 may be associated with both dominant and recessive forms. Seeking to describe the phenotypic characteristics of LZTR1-associated NS, we searched for likely pathogenic variants using two approaches. First, scrutiny of exomes from 9624 patients recruited by the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDDs) study uncovered six dominantly-acting mutations (p.R97L; p.Y136C; p.Y136H, p.N145I, p.S244C; p.G248R) of which five arose de novo, and three patients with compound-heterozygous variants (p.R210*/p.V579M; p.R210*/p.D531N; c.1149+1G>T/p.R688C). One patient also had biallelic loss-of-function mutations in NEB, consistent with a composite phenotype. After removing this complex case, analysis of human phenotype ontology terms indicated significant phenotypic similarities (P = 0.0005), supporting a causal role for LZTR1. Second, targeted sequencing of eight unsolved NS-like cases identified biallelic LZTR1 variants in three further subjects (p.W469*/p.Y749C, p.W437*/c.-38T>A and p.A461D/p.I462T). Our study strengthens the association of LZTR1 with NS, with de novo mutations clustering around the KT1-4 domains. Although LZTR1 variants explain ~0.1% of cases across the DDD cohort, the gene is a relatively common cause of unsolved NS cases where recessive inheritance is suspected

Low-\u3cem\u3ep\u3csub\u3eT\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e \u3cem\u3ee\u3c/em\u3e\u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3e \u3cem\u3ee\u3c/em\u3e\u3csup\u3e-\u3c/sup\u3e Pair Production in Au + Au Collisions at √\u3cem\u3es\u3c/em\u3e\u3csub\u3eNN\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e = 193 GeV and U + U Collisions at √\u3cem\u3es\u3c/em\u3e\u3csub\u3eNN\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e = 193 GeV at STAR

We report first measurements of e+e− pair production in the mass region 0.4 \u3c Mee \u3c 2.6  GeV/c2 at low transverse momentum (pT \u3c 0.15  GeV/c) in noncentral Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200  GeV and U+U collisions at √sNN = 193  GeV. Significant enhancement factors, expressed as ratios of data over known hadronic contributions, are observed in the 40%–80% centrality of these collisions. The excess yields peak distinctly at low pT with a width (√⟨p2T⟩) between 40 and 60  MeV/c. The absolute cross section of the excess depends weakly on centrality, while those from a theoretical model calculation incorporating an in-medium broadened ρ spectral function and radiation from a quark gluon plasma or hadronic cocktail contributions increase dramatically with an increasing number of participant nucleons. Model calculations of photon-photon interactions generated by the initial projectile and target nuclei describe the observed excess yields but fail to reproduce the p2T distributions

Azimuthal Anisotropy in Cu+Au Collisions at √\u3cem\u3es\u3csub\u3eNN\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e = 200 GeV

The azimuthal anisotropic flow of identified and unidentified charged particles has been systematically studied in Cu+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV for harmonics n = 1–4 in the pseudorapidity range |η| \u3c 1. The directed flow in Cu+Au collisions is compared with the rapidity-odd and, for the first time, the rapidity-even components of charged particle directed flow in Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 20 GeV. The slope of the directed flow pseudorapidity dependence in Cu+Au collisions is found to be similar to that in Au+Au collisions, with the intercept shifted toward positive pseudorapidity values, i.e., the Cu-going direction. The mean transverse momentum projected onto the spectator plane ⟨px⟩ in Cu+Au collision also exhibits approximately linear dependence on pseudorapidity with the intercept at about η ≈ −0.4 (shifted from zero in the Au-going direction), closer to the rapidity of the Cu+Au system center of mass. The observed dependencies find a natural explanation in a picture of the directed flow originating partly due the “tilted source” and partly due to the asymmetry in the initial density distribution. A charge dependence of ⟨px⟩ was also observed in Cu+Au collisions, consistent with an effect of the initial electric field created by charge difference of the spectator protons in two colliding nuclei. The rapidity-even component of directed flow in Au+Au collisions is close to that in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV, indicating a similar magnitude of dipolelike fluctuations in the initial-state density distribution. Higher harmonic flow in Cu+Au collisions exhibits similar trends to those observed in Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions and is qualitatively reproduced by a viscous hydrodynamic model and a multiphase transport model. For all harmonics with n ≥ 2 we observe an approximate scaling of vn with the number of constituent quarks; this scaling works as well in Cu+Au collisions as it does in Au+Au collisions

Transverse Spin-Dependent Azimuthal Correlations of Charged Pion Pairs Measured in \u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e↑ + \u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e Collisions at √\u3cem\u3es\u3c/em\u3e = 500 GeV

The transversity distribution, which describes transversely polarized quarks in transversely polarized nucleons, is a fundamental component of the spin structure of the nucleon, and is only loosely constrained by global fits to existing semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) data. In transversely polarized p↑ + p collisions it can be accessed using transverse polarization dependent fragmentation functions which give rise to azimuthal correlations between the polarization of the struck parton and the final state scalar mesons. This letter reports on spin dependent di-hadron correlations measured by the STAR experiment. The new dataset corresponds to 25 pb−1 integrated luminosity of p↑ + p collisions at √s = 500 GeV, an increase of more than a factor of ten compared to our previous measurement at √s = 200 GeV. Non-zero asymmetries sensitive to transversity are observed at a Q2 of several hundred GeV and are found to be consistent with the former measurement and a model calculation. We expect that these data will enable an extraction of transversity with comparable precision to current SIDIS datasets but at much higher momentum transfers where subleading effects are suppressed

\u3cem\u3eJ/ψ\u3c/em\u3e Production Cross Section and Its Dependence on Charged-Particle Multiplicity in \u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e +\u3cem\u3e p\u3c/em\u3e Collisions at √\u3cem\u3es\u3c/em\u3e=200 GeV

We present a measurement of inclusive J/ψ production at mid-rapidity (|y| \u3c 1) in p+p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √s=200 GeV with the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The differential production cross section for J/ψ as a function of transverse momentum (pT) for 0 \u3c pT \u3c 14 GeV/c and the total cross section are reported and compared to calculations from the color evaporation model and the non-relativistic Quantum Chromodynamics model. The dependence of J/ψ relative yields in three pT intervals on charged-particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity is measured for the first time in p+p collisions at √s=200 GeV and compared with that measured at √s=7 TeV, PYTHIA8 and EPOS3 Monte Carlo generators, and the Percolation model prediction

Correlation Measurements Between Flow Harmonics in Au + Au Collisions at RHIC

Flow harmonics (vn) in the Fourier expansion of the azimuthal distribution of particles are widely used to quantify the anisotropy in particle emission in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The symmetric cumulants, SC(m,n), are used to measure the correlations between different orders of flow harmonics. These correlations are used to constrain the initial conditions and the transport properties of the medium in theoretical models. In this Letter, we present the first measurements of the four-particle symmetric cumulants in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=39 and 200 GeV from data collected by the STAR experiment at RHIC. We observe that v2 and v3 are anti-correlated in all centrality intervals with similar correlation strengths from 39 GeV Au+Au to 2.76 TeV Pb+Pb (measured by the ALICE experiment). The v2–v4 correlation seems to be stronger at 39 GeV than at higher collision energies. The initial-stage anti-correlations between second and third order eccentricities are sufficient to describe the measured correlations between v2 and v3. The best description of v2–v4 correlations at √sNN=200 GeV is obtained with inclusion of the system\u27s nonlinear response to initial eccentricities accompanied by the viscous effect with η/s\u3e0.08. Theoretical calculations using different initial conditions, equations of state and viscous coefficients need to be further explored to extract η/s of the medium created at RHIC