130 research outputs found
Buckling instability causes inertial thrust for spherical swimmers at all scales
Microswimmers, and among them aspirant microrobots, generally have to cope
with flows where viscous forces are dominant, characterized by a low Reynolds
number (). This implies constraints on the possible sequences of body
motion, which have to be nonreciprocal. Furthermore, the presence of a strong
drag limits the range of resulting velocities. Here, we propose a swimming
mechanism, which uses the buckling instability triggered by pressure waves to
propel a spherical, hollow shell. With a macroscopic experimental model, we
show that a net displacement is produced at all regimes. An optimal
displacement caused by non-trivial history effects is reached at intermediate
. We show that, due to the fast activation induced by the instability, this
regime is reachable by microscopic shells. The rapid dynamics would also allow
high frequency excitation with standard traveling ultrasonic waves. Scale
considerations predict a swimming velocity of order 1 cm/s for a
remote-controlled microrobot, a suitable value for biological applications such
as drug delivery.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett See demonstration movie on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEXMsFwEqs
Determination of the interactions in confined macroscopic Wigner islands: theory and experiments
Macroscopic Wigner islands present an interesting complementary approach to
explore the properties of two-dimensional confined particles systems. In this
work, we characterize theoretically and experimentally the interaction between
their basic components, viz., conducting spheres lying on the bottom electrode
of a plane condenser. We show that the interaction energy can be approximately
described by a decaying exponential as well as by a modified Bessel function of
the second kind. In particular, this implies that the interactions in this
system, whose characteristics are easily controllable, are the same as those
between vortices in type-II superconductors.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Hydrodynamic lift of vesicles under shear flow in microgravity
The dynamics of a vesicle suspension in a shear flow between parallel plates
has been investigated under microgravity conditions, where vesicles are only
submitted to hydrodynamic effects such as lift forces due to the presence of
walls and drag forces. The temporal evolution of the spatial distribution of
the vesicles has been recorded thanks to digital holographic microscopy, during
parabolic flights and under normal gravity conditions. The collected data
demonstrates that vesicles are pushed away from the walls with a lift velocity
proportional to where is the shear rate,
the vesicle radius and its distance from the wall. This scaling as well
as the dependence of the lift velocity upon vesicle aspect ratio are consistent
with theoretical predictions by Olla [J. Phys. II France {\bf 7}, 1533--1540
(1997)].Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure
Single File Diffusion enhancement in a fluctuating modulated 1D channel
We show that the diffusion of a single file of particles moving in a
fluctuating modulated 1D channel is enhanced with respect to the one in a bald
pipe. This effect, induced by the fluctuations of the modulation, is favored by
the incommensurability between the channel potential modulation and the moving
file periodicity. This phenomenon could be of importance in order to optimize
the critical current in superconductors, in particular in the case where mobile
vortices move in 1D channels designed by adapted patterns of pinning sites.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
On single file and less dense processes
The diffusion process of N hard rods in a 1D interval of length L (--> inf)
is studied using scaling arguments and an asymptotic analysis of the exact
N-particle probability density function (PDF). In the class of such systems,
the universal scaling law of the tagged particle's mean absolute displacement
reads, ~ _{free}/n^mu, where _{free} is the result for a free
particle in the studied system and n is the number of particles in the covered
length. The exponent mu is given by, mu=1/(1+a), where a is associated with the
particles' density law of the system, rho~rho_0*L^(-a), 0<= a <=1. The scaling
law for leads to, ~rho_0^((a-1)/2) (_{free})^((1+a)/2), an
equation that predicts a smooth interpolation between single file diffusion and
free particle diffusion depending on the particles' density law, and holds for
any underlying dynamics. In particular, ~t^((1+a)/2) for normal diffusion,
with a Gaussian PDF in space for any value of a (deduced by a complementary
analysis), and, ~t^((beta(1+a))/2), for anomalous diffusion in which the
system's particles all have the same power-law waiting time PDF for individual
events, psi~t^(-1-beta), 0<beta<1. Our analysis shows that the scaling
~t^(1/2) in a 'standard' single file is a direct result of the fixed
particles' density condition imposed on the system, a=0
Stationary shapes of deformable particles moving at low Reynolds numbers
Lecture Notes of the Summer School ``Microswimmers -- From Single Particle
Motion to Collective Behaviour'', organised by the DFG Priority Programme SPP
1726 (Forschungszentrum J{\"{u}}lich, 2015).Comment: Pages C7.1-16 of G. Gompper et al. (ed.), Microswimmers - From Single
Particle Motion to Collective Behaviour, Lecture Notes of the DFG SPP 1726
Summer School 2015, Forschungszentrum J\"ulich GmbH, Schriften des
Forschungszentrums J\"ulich, Reihe Key Technologies, Vol 110, ISBN
978-3-95806-083-
Asteroids' physical models from combined dense and sparse photometry and scaling of the YORP effect by the observed obliquity distribution
The larger number of models of asteroid shapes and their rotational states
derived by the lightcurve inversion give us better insight into both the nature
of individual objects and the whole asteroid population. With a larger
statistical sample we can study the physical properties of asteroid
populations, such as main-belt asteroids or individual asteroid families, in
more detail. Shape models can also be used in combination with other types of
observational data (IR, adaptive optics images, stellar occultations), e.g., to
determine sizes and thermal properties. We use all available photometric data
of asteroids to derive their physical models by the lightcurve inversion method
and compare the observed pole latitude distributions of all asteroids with
known convex shape models with the simulated pole latitude distributions. We
used classical dense photometric lightcurves from several sources and
sparse-in-time photometry from the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff,
Catalina Sky Survey, and La Palma surveys (IAU codes 689, 703, 950) in the
lightcurve inversion method to determine asteroid convex models and their
rotational states. We also extended a simple dynamical model for the spin
evolution of asteroids used in our previous paper. We present 119 new asteroid
models derived from combined dense and sparse-in-time photometry. We discuss
the reliability of asteroid shape models derived only from Catalina Sky Survey
data (IAU code 703) and present 20 such models. By using different values for a
scaling parameter cYORP (corresponds to the magnitude of the YORP momentum) in
the dynamical model for the spin evolution and by comparing synthetics and
observed pole-latitude distributions, we were able to constrain the typical
values of the cYORP parameter as between 0.05 and 0.6.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, January 15, 201
The TP53 Arg72Pro and MDM2 309G>T polymorphisms are not associated with breast cancer risk in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers
Background: The TP53 pathway, in which TP53 and its negative regulator MDM2 are the central elements, has an important role in carcinogenesis, particularly in BRCA1- and BRCA2-mediated carcinogenesis. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter region of MDM2 (309T>G, rs2279744) and a coding SNP of TP53 (Arg72Pro, rs1042522) have been shown to be of functional significance. Methods: To investigate whether these SNPs modify breast cancer risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, we pooled genotype data on the TP53 Arg72Pro SNP in 7011 mutation carriers and on the MDM2 309T>G SNP in 2222 mutation carriers from the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA). Data were analysed using a Cox proportional hazards model within a retrospective likelihood framework. Results: No association was found between these SNPs and breast cancer risk for BRCA1 (TP53: per-allele hazard ratio (HR)=1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93–1.10, Ptrend=0.77; MDM2: HR=0.96, 95%CI: 0.84–1.09, Ptrend=0.54) or for BRCA2 mutation carriers (TP53: HR=0.99, 95%CI: 0.87–1.12, Ptrend=0.83; MDM2: HR=0.98, 95%CI: 0.80–1.21, Ptrend=0.88). We also evaluated the potential combined effects of both SNPs on breast cancer risk, however, none of their combined genotypes showed any evidence of association. Conclusion: There was no evidence that TP53 Arg72Pro or MDM2 309T>G, either singly or in combination, influence breast cancer risk in BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers. O M Sinilnikova1,2, A C Antoniou3, J Simard4, S Healey5, M Léoné1, D Sinnett6,7, A B Spurdle5, J Beesley5, X Chen5, kConFab8, M H Greene9, J T Loud9, F Lejbkowicz10, G Rennert10, S Dishon10, I L Andrulis11,12, OCGN11, S M Domchek13, K L Nathanson13, S Manoukian14, P Radice15,16, I Konstantopoulou17, I Blanco18, A L Laborde19, M Durán20, A Osorio21, J Benitez21, U Hamann22, F B L Hogervorst23, T A M van Os24, H J P Gille25, HEBON23, S Peock3, M Cook3, C Luccarini26, D G Evans27, F Lalloo27, R Eeles28, G Pichert29, R Davidson30, T Cole31, J Cook32, J Paterson33, C Brewer34, EMBRACE3, D J Hughes35, I Coupier36,37, S Giraud1, F Coulet38, C Colas38, F Soubrier38, E Rouleau39, I Bièche39, R Lidereau39, L Demange40, C Nogues40, H T Lynch41, GEMO1,2,42, R K Schmutzler43, B Versmold43, C Engel44, A Meindl45, N Arnold46, C Sutter47, H Deissler48, D Schaefer49, U G Froster50, GC-HBOC43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50, K Aittomäki51, H Nevanlinna52, L McGuffog3, D F Easton3, G Chenevix-Trench5 and D Stoppa-Lyonnet42 on behalf of the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/
The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer
Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM (-/-) patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors
- …