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Double-diffusive magnetic buoyancy instability in a quasi-two-dimensional Cartesian geometry
Magnetic buoyancy, believed to occur in the solar tachocline, is both an important part of large-scale solar dynamo models and the picture of how sunspots are formed. Given that in the tachocline region the ratio of magnetic diffusivity to thermal diffusivity is small it is important, for both the dynamo and sunspot formation pictures, to understand magnetic buoyancy in this regime. Furthermore, the tachocline is a region of strong shear and such investigations must involve structures that become buoyant in the double-diffusive regime which are generated entirely from a shear flow. In a previous study, we have illustrated that shear-generated doublediffusive magnetic buoyancy instability is possible in the tachocline. However, this study was severely limited due to the computational requirements of running three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations over diffusive time-scales. A more comprehensive investigation is required to fully understand the double-diffusive magnetic buoyancy instability and its dependency on a number of key parameters; such an investigation requires the consideration of a reduced model. Here we consider a quasi-two-dimensional model where all gradients in the x direction are set to zero. We show how the instability is sensitive to changes in the thermal diffusivity and also show how different initial configurations of the forced shear flow affect the behaviour of the instability. Finally, we conclude that if the tachocline is thinner than currently stated then the double-diffusive magnetic buoyancy instability can more easily occur
Multi-Zone Shell Model for Turbulent Wall Bounded Flows
We suggested a \emph{Multi-Zone Shell} (MZS) model for wall-bounded flows
accounting for the space inhomogeneity in a "piecewise approximation", in which
cross-section area of the flow, , is subdivided into "-zones". The area
of the first zone, responsible for the core of the flow, , and
areas of the next -zones, , decrease towards the wall like . In each -zone the statistics of turbulence is assumed to be space
homogeneous and is described by the set of "shell velocities" for
turbulent fluctuations of the scale . The MZS-model includes a
new set of complex variables, , , describing the
amplitudes of the near wall coherent structures of the scale
and responsible for the mean velocity profile. Suggested MZS-equations of
motion for and preserve the actual conservations laws
(energy, mechanical and angular momenta), respect the existing symmetries
(including Galilean and scale invariance) and account for the type of the
non-linearity in the Navier-Stokes equation, dimensional reasoning, etc. The
MZS-model qualitatively describes important characteristics of the wall bounded
turbulence, e.g., evolution of the mean velocity profile with increasing
Reynolds number, \RE, from the laminar profile towards the universal
logarithmic profile near the flat-plane boundary layer as \RE\to \infty.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figs, included, PRE, submitte
Statistical properties of coronal hole rotation rates: Are they linked to the solar interior?
The present paper discusses results of a statistical study of the
characteristics of coronal hole (CH) rotation in order to find connections to
the internal rotation of the Sun. The goal is to measure CH rotation rates and
study their distribution over latitude and their area sizes. In addition, the
CH rotation rates are compared with the solar photospheric and inner layer
rotational profiles. We study coronal holes observed within latitude
and longitude degrees from the solar disc centre during the time span from the
1 January 2013 to 20 April 2015, which includes the extended peak of solar
cycle 24.We used data created by the Spatial Possibilistic Clustering Algorithm
(SPoCA), which provides the exact location and characterisation of solar
coronal holes using SDO=AIA 193 {\AA} channel images. The CH rotation rates are
measured with four-hour cadence data to track variable positions of the CH
geometric centre. North-south asymmetry was found in the distribution of
coronal holes: about 60 percent were observed in the northern hemisphere and 40
percent were observed in the southern hemisphere. The smallest and largest CHs
were present only at high latitudes. The average sidereal rotation rate for 540
examined CHs is degrees/d. Conclusions. The latitudinal
characteristics of CH rotation do not match any known photospheric rotation
profile. The CH angular velocities exceed the photospheric angular velocities
at latitudes higher than 35-40 degrees. According to our results, the CH
rotation profile perfectly coincides with tachocline and the lower layers of
convection zone at around 0.71 ; this indicates that CHs may be
linked to the solar global magnetic field, which originates in the tachocline
region.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A&
Interactions between magnetohydrodynamic shear instabilities and convective flows in the solar interior
Motivated by the interface model for the solar dynamo, this paper explores
the complex magnetohydrodynamic interactions between convective flows and
shear-driven instabilities. Initially, we consider the dynamics of a forced
shear flow across a convectively-stable polytropic layer, in the presence of a
vertical magnetic field. When the imposed magnetic field is weak, the dynamics
are dominated by a shear flow (Kelvin-Helmholtz type) instability. For stronger
fields, a magnetic buoyancy instability is preferred. If this stably stratified
shear layer lies below a convectively unstable region, these two regions can
interact. Once again, when the imposed field is very weak, the dynamical
effects of the magnetic field are negligible and the interactions between the
shear layer and the convective layer are relatively minor. However, if the
magnetic field is strong enough to favour magnetic buoyancy instabilities in
the shear layer, extended magnetic flux concentrations form and rise into the
convective layer. These magnetic structures have a highly disruptive effect
upon the convective motions in the upper layer.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The enhancement of phase separation aspect in electron doped manganite Ca0.8Sm0.16Nd0.04MnO3
The complex lanthanide doping of electron manganites results in enhancement
of various phase separation effects in physical properties of these compounds.
Selecting Ca0.8Sm0.16Nd0.04MnO3 as a model case we show that the first order
structural phase transition from paramagnetic semi-metallic phase into
anti-ferromagnetic semi-metallic phase at TS ~ 158 +- 4 K is marked by an
abrupt decrease in magnetization, a step like anomaly DL/L = 10-4 in thermal
expansion and large latent heat DQ = 610 J/mol. In a certain temperature range
below TS, the high field magnetization exhibits hysteretic metamagnetic
behavior due to field-induced first order transformation. ac-susceptibility,
magnetization and resistivity data suggest rather a non-uniform state in
Ca0.8Sm0.16Nd0.04MnO3 at low temperatures. The metal - insulator transition
occurs at TMI ~112 +- 3 K, accompanied by a step-like increase in
magnetization. These features could be ascribed to "sponging" of electrons from
neighboring anti-ferromagnetic matrix by clusters undergoing the ferromagnetic
ordering.Comment: submitted to J.Phys. Cond. Matte
Molecular Investigations of PenA-mediated β-lactam Resistance in Burkholderia pseudomallei
Burkholderia pseudomallei is the etiological agent of melioidosis. Because of the bacterium’s intrinsic resistance and propensity to establish latent infections, melioidosis therapy is complicated and prolonged. Newer generation β-lactams, specifically ceftazidime, are used for acute phase therapy, but resistance to this cephalosporin has been observed. The chromosomally encoded penA gene encodes a putative twin arginine translocase (TAT)-secreted β-lactamase, and penA mutations have been implicated in ceftazidime resistance in clinical isolates. However, the role of PenA in resistance has not yet been systematically studied in isogenetic B. pseudomallei mutant backgrounds. We investigated the effects of penA deletion, point mutations, and up-regulation, as well as tat operon deletion and PenA TAT-signal sequence mutations. These experiments were made possible by employing a B. pseudomallei strain that is excluded from Select Agent regulations. Deletion of penA significantly (>4-fold) reduced the susceptibility to six of the nine β-lactams tested and ≥16-fold for ampicillin, amoxicillin, and carbenicillin. Overexpression of penA by single-copy, chromosomal expression of the gene under control of the inducible Ptac promoter, increased resistance levels for all β-lactams tested 2- to 10-fold. Recreation of the C69Y and P167S PenA amino acid substitutions previously observed in resistant clinical isolates increased resistance to ceftazidime by ≥85- and 5- to 8-fold, respectively. Similarly, a S72F substitution resulted in a 4-fold increase in resistance to amoxicillin and clavulanic acid. Susceptibility assays with PenA TAT-signal sequence and ΔtatABC mutants, as well as Western blot analysis, confirmed that PenA is a TAT secreted enzyme and not periplasmic but associated with the spheroplastic cell fraction. Lastly, we determined that two LysR-family regulators encoded by genes adjacent to penA do not play a role in transcriptional regulation of penA expression
Transcriptome pathways unique to dehydration tolerant relatives of modern wheat
Among abiotic stressors, drought is a major factor responsible for dramatic yield loss in agriculture. In order to reveal differences in global expression profiles of drought tolerant and sensitive wild emmer wheat genotypes, a previously deployed shock-like dehydration process was utilized to compare transcriptomes at two time points in root and leaf tissues using the Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Wheat Genome Array hybridization. The comparison of transcriptomes reveal several unique genes or expression patterns such as differential usage of IP(3)-dependent signal transduction pathways, ethylene- and abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent signaling, and preferential or faster induction of ABA-dependent transcription factors by the tolerant genotype that distinguish contrasting genotypes indicative of distinctive stress response pathways. The data also show that wild emmer wheat is capable of engaging known drought stress responsive mechanisms. The global comparison of transcriptomes in the absence of and after dehydration underlined the gene networks especially in root tissues that may have been lost in the selection processes generating modern bread wheats
Recombinations to the Rydberg States of Hydrogen and Their Effect During the Cosmological Recombination Epoch
In this paper we discuss the effect of recombinations to highly excited
states (n > 100) in hydrogen during the cosmological recombination epoch. For
this purpose, we developed a new ODE solver for the recombination problem,
based on an implicit Gear's method. This solver allows us to include up to 350
l-resolved shells or ~61 000 separate levels in the hydrogen model and to solve
the recombination problem for one cosmology in ~27 hours. This is a huge
improvement in performance over our previous recombination code, for which a
100-shell computation (5050 separate states) already required ~150 hours on a
single processor. We show that for 350 shells down to redshift z ~200 the
results for the free electron fraction have practically converged. The final
modification in the free electron fraction at z ~200 decreases from about
\DeltaNe/Ne ~2.8% for 100 shells to \DeltaNe/Ne ~1.6% for 350 shells. However,
the associated changes in the CMB power spectra at large multipoles l are
rather small, so that for accurate computations in connection with the analysis
of Planck data already ~100 shells are expected to be sufficient. Nevertheless,
the total value of \tau could still be affected at a significant level. We also
briefly investigate the effect of collisions on the recombination dynamics.
With our current estimates for the collisional rates we find a correction of
\DeltaNe/Ne ~ -0.088% at z ~ 700, which is mainly caused by l-changing
collisions with protons. Furthermore, we present results on the cosmological
recombination spectrum, showing that at low frequencies collisional processes
are important. However, the current accuracy of collisional rates is
insufficient for precise computations of templates for the recombination
spectrum at \nu<~1 GHz, and also the effect of collisions on the recombination
dynamics suffers from the uncertainty in these rates.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 1 table; Sect. 4.1.2 added; accepted versio
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