The magnetohydrodynamics of supersonic gas clouds: MHD cosmic bullets and wind-swept clumps

We report an extensive set of two-dimensional MHD simulations exploring the role and evolution of magnetic fields in the dynamics of supersonic plasma clumps. We examine the influence of both ambient field strength and orientation on the problem. Of those two characteristics, field orientation is far more important in the cases we have considered with beta(0) = p(g)/p(b) greater than or equal to 1. That is due to the geometry-sensitivity of field stretching/amplification from large-scale shearing motions around the bullet. When the ambient magnetic field is transverse to the bullet motion, even a very modest field, well below equipartition strength, can be amplified by field line stretching around the bullet within a couple of bullet crushing times so that Maxwell stresses become comparable to the ram pressure associated with the bullet motion. The possibility is discussed that those situations might lead to large, induced electric potentials capable of accelerating charged particles. When the ambient field is aligned to the bullet motion, on the other hand, reconnection-prone topologies develop that shorten the stretched field and release much of the excess energy it contains. In this geometry, the Maxwell stresses on the bullet never approach the ram pressure level. In both cases, however, the presence of a field with even moderate initial strength acts to help the flow realign itself around the bullet into a smoother, more laminar form. That reduces bullet fragmentation tendencies caused by destructive instabilities. Eddies seem less effective at held amplification than flows around the bullet, because fields within eddies tend to be expelled to the eddy perimeters. Similar effects cause the magnetic field within the bullet itself to be reduced below its initial value over time. For oblique fields, we expect that the transverse field cases modeled here are more generally relevant. What counts is whether field lines threading the face of the bullet are swept around it in a fashion that folds them (leading to reconnection) or that keeps them unidirectional one each side of the bullet. In the second instance, behaviors should resemble those of the transverse field cases. We estimate that this quasi-transverse behavior is appropriate whenever the angle, theta, between the motion and the field satisfies tan theta greater than or similar to 1/M, where M is the bullet Mach number. From these simulations, we find support in either held geometry for the conclusions reached in previous studies that nonthermal radio emission associated with supersonic clumps is likely to be controlled largely by the generation of strong magnetic fields around the perimeters of the clumps, rather than local particle acceleration and field compression within the bow shock. In addition, since the magnetic pressure on the nose of the bullet likely becomes comparable to the ram pressure and hence the total pressure behind the bow shock, the gas pressure there could be substantially lower than that in a gasdynamical bullet. That means, as well, that the temperature in the region on the nose of the bullet would be lower than that predicted in the gasdynamical case. That detail could alter expectations of the thermal emission, including X-rays and UV-IR linesopen554

Detection of nocturnal hypoglycemic episodes (natural occurrence) in children with Type 1 diabetes using an optimal Bayesian neural network algorithm.

Hypoglycemia or low blood glucose is dangerous and can result in unconsciousness, seizures and even death. It is a common and serious side effect of insulin therapy in patients with diabetes. HypoMon is a non-invasive monitor that measures some physiological parameters continuously to provide detection of hypoglycemic episodes in Type 1 diabetes mellitus patients (T1DM). Based on heart rate and corrected QT interval of the ECG signal, we have continued to develop Bayesian neural network detection algorithms to recognize the presence of hypoglycemic episodes. From a clinical study of 16 children with T1DM, natural occurrence of nocturnal hypoglycemic episodes are associated with increased heart rates (1.033+/-0.242 vs. 1.082+/-0.298, P0.06) and increased corrected QT intervals (1.031+/-0.086 vs. 1.060+/-0.084, P0.001). The overall data were organized into a training set (8 patients) and a test set (another 8 patients) randomly selected. Using the optimal Bayesian neural network with 10 hidden nodes which was derived from the training set with the highest log evidence, the sensitivity (true positive) value for detection of hypoglycemia in the test set is 89.2%

Three-dimensional simulations of the Parker instability in a uniformly rotating disk

We investigate the effects of rotation on the evolution of the Parker instability by carrying out three-dimensional numerical simulations with an isothermal magnetohydrodynamic code. These simulations extend our previous work on the nonlinear evolution of the Parker instability by J. Kim and coworkers. The initial equilibrium system is composed of exponentially stratified gas and a field (along the azimuthal direction) in a uniform gravity (along the downward vertical direction). The computational box, placed at the solar neighborhood, is set to rotate uniformly around the Galactic center with a constant angular speed. The instability has been initialized by random velocity perturbations. In the linear stage, the evolution is not much different from that without rotation, and the mixed (undular + interchange) mode regulates the system. The interchange mode induces alternating dense and rarefied regions with small radial wavelengths, while the undular mode bends the magnetic field lines in the plane of the azimuthal and vertical directions. In the nonlinear stage, flow motion overall becomes chaotic, as in the case without rotation. However, as the gas in higher positions slides down along field lines forming supersonic flows, the Coriolis force becomes important. As oppositely directed flows fall into valleys along both sides of the magnetic field lines, they experience the Coriolis force toward opposite directions, which twists the magnetic field lines there. Hence, we suggest that the Coriolis force plays a role in randomizing the magnetic field. The three-dimensional density structure formed by the instability is still sheetlike with the short dimension along the radial direction, as in the case without rotation. However, the long dimension is now slightly tilted with respect to the mean field direction. The shape of high-density regions is a bit rounder. The maximum enhancement factor of the vertical column density relative to its initial value is about 1.5, which is smaller than that in the case without rotation. We conclude that uniform rotation does not change our point of view that the Parker instability alone is not a viable mechanism for the formation of giant molecular cloudsopen252

Identification of hypoglycemic states for patients with T1DM using various parameters derived from EEG signals

For patients with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), hypoglycemia is a very common but dangerous complication which can lead to unconsciousness, coma and even death. The variety of hypoglycemia symptoms is originated from the inadequate supply of glucose to the brain. In this study, we explore the connection between hypoglycemic episodes and the electrical activity of neurons within the brain or electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. By analyzing EEG signals from a clinical study of five children with T1DM, associated with hypoglycemia at night, we find that some EEG parameters change significantly under hypoglycemia condition. Based on these parameters, a method of detecting hypoglycemic episodes using EEG signals with a feed-forward multi-layer neural network is proposed. In our application, the classification results are 72% sensitivity and 55% specificity when the EEG signals are acquired from 2 electrodes C3 and O2. Furthermore, signals from different channels are also analyzed to observe the contributions of each channel to the performance of hypoglycemia classification. © 2011 IEEE

Take it or leave it: prefrontal control in recreational cocaine users.

Though stimulant drugs such as cocaine are considered highly addictive, some individuals report recreational use over long periods without developing dependence. Difficulties in response inhibition have been hypothesized to contribute to dependence, but previous studies investigating response inhibition in recreational cocaine users have reported conflicting results. Performance on a stop-signal task was examined in 24 recreational cocaine users and 32 healthy non-drug using control participants matched for age, gender and verbal intelligence during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. The two groups were further matched on traumatic childhood histories and the absence of family histories of addiction. Results revealed that recreational cocaine users did not significantly differ from controls on any index of task performance, including response execution and stop-signal reaction time, with the latter averaging 198 ms in both groups. Functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses indicated that, compared with controls, stopping in the recreational users was associated with increased activation in the pre-supplementary motor area but not the right inferior frontal cortex. Thus, findings imply intact response inhibition abilities in recreational cocaine users, though the distinct pattern of accompanying activation suggests increased recruitment of brain areas implicated in response inhibition. This increased recruitment could be attributed to compensatory mechanisms that enable preserved cognitive control in this group, possibly relating to their hypothetical resilience to stimulant drug dependence. Such overactivation, alternatively, may be attributable to prolonged cocaine use leading to neuroplastic adaptations.This work was funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) research grant to KDE, ETB and TWR (G0701497) and was conducted within the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, which is supported by a joint award from the MRC and the Wellcome Trust; Both KDE and PSJ were supported by the MRC, SM was supported by a Wellcome Trust grant (089589/Z/09/Z) awarded to TW Robbins.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/tp.2015.8

Impairments in reinforcement learning do not explain enhanced habit formation in cocaine use disorder.

RATIONALE: Drug addiction has been suggested to develop through drug-induced changes in learning and memory processes. Whilst the initiation of drug use is typically goal-directed and hedonically motivated, over time, drug-taking may develop into a stimulus-driven habit, characterised by persistent use of the drug irrespective of the consequences. Converging lines of evidence suggest that stimulant drugs facilitate the transition of goal-directed into habitual drug-taking, but their contribution to goal-directed learning is less clear. Computational modelling may provide an elegant means for elucidating changes during instrumental learning that may explain enhanced habit formation. OBJECTIVES: We used formal reinforcement learning algorithms to deconstruct the process of appetitive instrumental learning and to explore potential associations between goal-directed and habitual actions in patients with cocaine use disorder (CUD). METHODS: We re-analysed appetitive instrumental learning data in 55 healthy control volunteers and 70 CUD patients by applying a reinforcement learning model within a hierarchical Bayesian framework. We used a regression model to determine the influence of learning parameters and variations in brain structure on subsequent habit formation. RESULTS: Poor instrumental learning performance in CUD patients was largely determined by difficulties with learning from feedback, as reflected by a significantly reduced learning rate. Subsequent formation of habitual response patterns was partly explained by group status and individual variation in reinforcement sensitivity. White matter integrity within goal-directed networks was only associated with performance parameters in controls but not in CUD patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that impairments in reinforcement learning are insufficient to account for enhanced habitual responding in CUD.This research was funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/J012084/1) and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and was conducted at the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. This research was also supported in part by a Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Research Infrastructure award (MR/M009041/1). R.N.C. consults for Campden Instruments and receives royalties from Cambridge Enterprise, Routledge, and Cambridge University Press. RNC’s research is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_PC_17213). T.W.R. discloses consultancy with Cambridge Cognition, Lundbeck, Mundipharma and Unilever; he receives royalties for CANTAB from Cambridge Cognition and editorial honoraria from Springer Verlag and Elsevier. T.V.L., G.S. P.S.J., A.A.M. and K.D.E. declare to have no potential conflict of interest

Search for lepton lavour violation in e+p collisions at HERA

A search for the lepton flavour violating processes ep->mu X and ep -> tau X is performed with the H1 experiment at HERA. Final states with a muon or tau and a hadronic jet are searched for in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 66.5 pb-1 for e^+ p collisions and 13.7 pb^-1 for e^- p collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 319 GeV. No evidence for lepton flavour violation is found. Limits are derived on the mass and the couplings of leptoquarks inducing lepton flavour violation in an extension of the Buchm"uller-R"uckl-Wyler effective model. Leptoquarks produced in ep collisions with a coupling strength of lambda=0.3 and decaying with the same coupling strength to a muon-quark pair or a tau-quark pair are excluded at 95% confidence level up to masses of 459 GeV and 379 GeV, respectively

Signalling Responses Following Varying Sequencing of Strength and Endurance Training in a Fed State.

The objective of this study was to compare anabolic signalling responses to differing sequences of concurrent strength and endurance training in a fed state.Eighteen resistance-trained males were randomly assigned to the following experimental conditions; i) strength training (ST), ii) strength followed by endurance training (ST-END) or iii) endurance followed by strength training (END-ST). Muscle tissue samples were taken from the vastus lateralis before each exercise protocol, upon cessation of exercise, and 1 h-post cessation of strength training. Tissue was analysed for total and phosphorylated (p-) signalling proteins linked to the mTOR and AMPK networks.Strength training performance was similar between ST, ST-END and END-ST. p-S6k1 was elevated from baseline 1 h post training in ST and ST-END (both p < 0.05). p-4E-BP1 was significantly lower than baseline post ST (p = 0.01), while 1 h post exercise in the ST-END condition p-4E-BP1 was significantly greater than post exercise (p = 0.04). p-ACC was elevated from baseline both post and 1 h post exercise (both p < 0.05) in the END-ST condition. AMPK, mTOR, p38, PKB, eEF2 responded similarly to the ST, ST-END and END-ST. Signalling responses to ST, ST-END and END were largely similar. As such it cannot be ascertained which sequence of concurrent strength and endurance training is most favourable in promoting anabolic signalling.These data indicate that in the case of the present study an acute bout of concurrent training of differing sequences elicited similar responses of the AMPK and mTOR networks