Investigation on numerical schemes in the simulation of barotropic cavitating flows

A numerical methodology for the simulation of cavitating flows is considered. A homogeneous-flow cavitation model, accounting for thermal effects and active nuclei concentration, is considered, which leads to a barotropic state law. The continuity and momentum equations for compressible inviscid flows are discretized through a finite-volume approach, applicable to unstructured grids. The numerical fluxes are computed by shockcapturing schemes and adhoc preconditioning is used to avoid accuracy problems in the low-Mach regime. Second-order accuracy in space is obtained through MUSCL reconstruction. Time advancing is carried out by an implicit linearized scheme. Two different numerical fluxes are investigated here, viz. the Roe and the Rusanov schemes. For the Rusanov flux two different time linearizations are proposed; in the first one the upwind part of the flux function is frozen in time, while in the second one its time variation is taken into account, although in an approximated manner. The different schemes and the different linearizations are appraised for the quasi 1D-flow in a nozzle through comparison against exact solutions and for the flow around a hydrofoil mounted in a wind tunnel through comparison against experimental data. Non-cavitating and cavitating conditions are simulated. It is shown that, for cavitating conditions, the Rusanov scheme together with the more complete time linearization allows time steps much larger than for the Roe scheme to be used. Finally, the results obtained with this scheme are in good agreement with the exact solutions or the experimental data for all the considered test cases.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84242/1/CAV2009-final42.pd

Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Recent studies have revived interest in the long-scrutinized association between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis (MS). We review this evidence and discuss it in relation to MS pathological and clinical features and patients' response to immunosuppressive therapies. RECENT FINDINGS: Serological evidence of previous exposure to EBV in children with MS supports a role for EBV infection early in MS pathogenesis, as already indicated by prospective studies in adults. Higher antibody titers and T-cell responses to EBV in patients compared to healthy EBV carriers indicate possible continuous viral reactivation, whereas there is some evidence that EBV could break immune tolerance to myelin antigens through molecular mimicry. Detection of EBV-infected B-cells in patients' brain raises the possibility that intrathecal B-cell abnormalities and T-cell-mediated immunopathology in MS are the consequence of a persistently dysregulated EBV infection. Accordingly, targeting T-cells and/or B-cells with monoclonal antibody therapies ameliorates MS. Whether EBV has a causative or pathogenic role in MS can now be addressed in relation to genetic, hormonal and other environmental influences that may affect EBV-host interactions. SUMMARY: By shedding light on the involvement of EBV in MS, these findings will pave the way to disease prevention and increase the therapeutic index of future treatments

THE COHOMOLOGY OF THE BRAID GROUP B3 AND OF SL2(Z) WITH COEFFICIENTS IN A GEOMETRIC REPRESENTATION

The purpose of this article is to describe the integral cohomology of the braid group B3 and SL2 (Z) with local coefficients in a classical geometric representation given by symmetric powers of the natural symplectic representation. These groups have a description in terms of the so-called ‘divided polynomial algebra’. The results show a strong relation between the torsion part of the computed cohomology and fibrations related to loop spaces of spheres

Large Binocular Telescope observations of PSR J2043+2740

We present the results of deep optical imaging of the radio/$\gamma$-ray pulsar PSR J2043+2740, obtained with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). With a characteristic age of 1.2 Myr, PSR J2043+2740 is one of the oldest (non recycled) pulsars detected in $\gamma$-rays, although with still a quite high rotational energy reservoir ($\dot{E}_{\rm rot} = 5.6 \times 10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$). The presumably close distance (a few hundred pc), suggested by the hydrogen column density ($N_{\rm H} \lesssim 3.6 \times 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$), would make it a viable target for deep optical observations, never attempted until now. We observed the pulsar with the Large Binocular Camera of the LBT. The only object (V=25.44$\pm$0.05) detected within ~3" from the pulsar radio coordinates is unrelated to it. PSR J2043+2740 is, thus, undetected down to V~26.6 (3-$\sigma$), the deepest limit on its optical emission. We discuss the implications of this result on the pulsar emission properties.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA

Neural Structures to Predict River Stages in Heavily Urbanized Catchments

Accurate flow forecasting may support responsible institutions in managing river systems and limiting damages due to high water levels. Machine-learning models are known to describe many nonlinear hydrological phenomena, but up to now, they have mainly provided a single future value with a fixed information structure. This study trains and tests multi-step deep neural networks with different inputs to forecast the water stage of two sub-alpine urbanized catchments. They prove effective for one hour ahead flood stage values and occurrences. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) perform better when only past information on the water stage is used. Long short-term memory nets (LSTMs) are more suited to exploit the data coming from the rain gauges. Predicting a set of water stages over the following hour rather than just a single future value may help concerned agencies take the most urgent actions. The paper also shows that the architecture developed for one catchment can be adapted to similar ones maintaining high accuracy

COHOMOLOGY OF BRAIDS, PRINCIPAL CONGRUENCE SUBGROUPS AND GEOMETRIC REPRESENTATIONS

The main purpose of this article is to give the integral cohomology of classical principal congruence subgroups in SL(2, ℤ) as well as their analogues in the 3-strand braid group with local coefficients in symmetric powers of the natural symplectic representation. The resulting answers (1) correspond to certain modular forms in characteristic zero and (2) the cohomology of certain spaces in homotopy theory in characteristic p. The torsion is given in terms of the structure of a ‘p-divided power algebra’. The work is an extension of the work in Callegaro et al. [The cohomology of the braid group B3 and of SL2(ℤ) with coefficients in a geometric representation, Quart. J. Math. 64 (2013), 847–889] as well as extensions of a classical computation of Shimura to integral coefficients. The results here contrast the local coefficients such as that in Looijenga [Stable cohomology of the mapping class group with symplectic coefficients and of the universal Abel–Jacobi map, J. Algebraic Geom. 5 (1996), 135–150] and Tillmann [The representation of the mapping class group of a surface on its fundamental group in stable homology, Quart. J. Math. 61 (2010), 373–380]

FlhF, a signal recognition particle-like GTPase, is involved in the regulation of flagellar arrangement, motility behaviour and protein secretion in Bacillus cereus

Flagellar arrangement is a highly conserved feature within bacterial species. However, only a few genes regulating cell flagellation have been described in polar flagellate bacteria. This report demonstrates that the arrangement of flagella in the peritrichous flagellate Bacillus cereus is controlled by flhF. Disruption of flhF in B. cereus led to a reduction in the number of flagella from 10-12 to 1-3 filaments per cell in the insertion mutant MP06. Moreover, compared to the parental strain, MP06 exhibited: (i) shorter smooth swimming phases, causing reduced swimming motility but not affecting chemotaxis; (ii) complete inhibition of swarming motility, as differentiated swarm cells were never detected; (iii) an increased amount of extracellular proteins; and (iv) differential export of virulence determinants, such as haemolysin BL (HBL), phosphatidylcholine-preferring phospholipase C (PC-PLC) and non-haemolytic enterotoxin (NHE). Introduction of a plasmid harbouring flhF (pDGflhF) into MP06 completely restored the wild-type phenotype in the trans-complemented strain MP07. B. cereus flhF was found to constitute a monocistronic transcriptional unit and its overexpression did not produce abnormal features in the wild-type background. Characterization of a B. cereus mutant (MP05) carrying a partial flhF deletion indicated that the last C-terminal domain of FlhF is involved in protein export while not required for flagellar arrangement and motility behaviour. Taken together, these data suggest that B. cereus FlhF is a promising candidate for connecting diverse cellular functions, such as flagellar arrangement, motility behaviour, pattern of protein secretion and virulence phenotype

Reshaping the Museum of Zoology in Rome by Visual Storytelling and Interactive Iconography

This article summarizes the concept of a new immersive and interactive setting for the Zoology Museum in Rome, Italy. The concept, co-designed with all the museum’s curators, is aimed at enhancing the experiential involvement of the visitors by visual storytelling and interactive iconography. Thanks to immersive and interactive technologies designed by Centro Studi Logos, developed by Logosnet and known as e-REALâ and MirrorMeä, zoological findings and memoirs come to life and interact directly with the visitors in order to deepen their understanding, visualize stories and live experiences, and interact with the founder of the Museum (Mr. Arrigoni degli Oddi) who is now a virtualized avatar, or digital human, able to talk with the visitors. All the interactions are powered through simple hand gestures and, in a few cases, vocal inputs that transform into recognized commands from multimedia systems