A magnetically enabled simulation of microgravity represses the auxin response during early seed germination on a microfluidic platform

For plants on Earth, the phytohormone auxin is essential for gravitropism-regulated seedling establishment and plant growth. However, little is known about auxin responses under microgravity conditions due to the lack of a tool that can provide an alteration of gravity. In this paper, a microfluidic negative magnetophoretic platform is developed to levitate Arabidopsis seeds in an equilibrium plane where the applied magnetic force compensates for gravitational acceleration. With the benefit of the microfluidic platform to simulate a microgravity environment on-chip, it is found that the auxin response is significantly repressed in levitated seeds. Simulated microgravity statistically interrupts auxin responses in embryos, even after chemical-mediated auxin alterations, illustrating that auxin is a critical factor that mediates the plant response to gravity alteration. Furthermore, pretreatment with an auxin transportation inhibitor (N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid) enables a decrease in the auxin response, which is no longer affected by simulated microgravity, demonstrating that polar auxin transportation plays a vital role in gravity-regulated auxin responses. The presented microfluidic platform provides simulated microgravity conditions in an easy-to-implement manner, helping to study and elucidate how plants correspond to diverse gravity conditions; in the future, this may be developed into a versatile tool for biological study on a variety of samples.

Non-zero Yarkovsky acceleration for near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis

The leading source of uncertainty to predict the orbital motion of asteroid (99942) Apophis is a non-gravitational acceleration arising from the anisotropic thermal re-emission of absorbed radiation, known as the Yarkovsky effect. Previous attempts to obtain this parameter from astrometry for this object have only yielded marginally small values, without ruling out a pure gravitational interaction. Here we present an independent estimation of the Yarkovsky effect based on optical and radar astrometry which includes observations obtained during 2021. Our numerical approach exploits automatic differentiation techniques. We find a non-zero Yarkovsky parameter, A2 = (−2.899 ± 0.025) × 10−14 au d−2, with induced semi-major axis drift of (−199.0 ± 1.5) m yr−1 for Apophis. Our results provide definite collision probability predictions for the close approaches in 2029, 2036, and 2068.

Experimental and Numerical Study of the Discharge Performance of Particle-Laden Turbulent Flow

In the marine fire suppression system, continuous delivery of dry chemical powder to the fire source with long powder discharge range and high dispersion concentration is essential. The work is devoted to experimental and numerical studies of the flow characteristics of the dry chemical powder jet from a horizontal injector with a wide range of Stokes numbers between 6 to 30 and Reynolds numbers between 4792 to 23,960 by considering the effect of gravitational acceleration. A CFD-based Eulerian–Eulerian multiphase model combined with Standard k-ω turbulence model was used to predict flow characteristics of particle-laden jet using dimensionless numbers, including the solid volume fraction, the normalized velocity magnitude, and the turbulent viscosity ratio. Experimental studies have been carried out for three different inflow velocities (2.06, 2.45, and 2.81 m/s). The results indicate that the particle density plays a significant role in the dispersion of the particles in the radial and axial directions. The transition from U-shaped to V-shaped solid dispersion structure on the ground can be captured with the increase of particle density. Moreover, the higher level turbulence intensity enhances the solid dispersion concentration. Finally, it was found that the Portland cement powder exhibits better discharge performance in terms of solid discharge range and dispersion concentration in comparison with other dry powders. These results have implications in the design of powder-based fire suppression system. Further studies should aim to the in-depth research on the fire extinguishing mechanism of the Portland cement powder, especially the fire suppression effectiveness and thermal decomposition process.

Reduction of the auto seismic component of error of a ballistic laser gravimeter by excitation of an induction-dynamic catapult from an AC voltage source

The purpose of the study is to analyse the influence of the excitation of an induction-dynamic catapult of a ballistic laser gravimeter from an AC voltage source at different frequencies on electromechanical indicators that provide a reduced value of the auto seismic component of error in measuring the gravitational acceleration g due to a decrease in the recoil force. A mathematical model of the gravimeter catapult when excited from an AC voltage source is proposed, taking into account the interrelated electrical, magnetic and mechanical processes. The nature of the electromechanical processes in the catapult of the gravimeter with such excitation has been established. It is shown that a phase shift occurs between the currents in active elements, as a result of which positive (repulsive) pulses of the electrodynamic force alternate with negative (attractive) pulses of force. A criterion for the efficiency of the gravimeter catapult has been introduced, taking into account the maximum value of push of the test body at the smallest values of the electrodynamic force and current of the inductor winding. It was found that the highest efficiency of the gravimeter catapult is provided at a frequency of 250 Hz, at which the catapult efficiency is 3.5 times higher than at a frequency of 50 Hz. It is shown that the transition from the method of excitation of an induction-dynamic catapult with one short pulse to excitation from an AC voltage source makes it possible to reduce the uncertainty in measuring the gravitational acceleration.

Quantitative Assessment of Dynamic Stability Characteristics for Jet Transport in Sudden Plunging Motion

The main objective of this article is to present a training program of loss control prevention for the airlines to enhance aviation safety and operational efficiency. The assessments of dynamic stability characteristics based on the approaches of oscillatory motion and eigenvalue motion modes for jet transport aircraft response to sudden plunging motions are demonstrated in this article. A twin-jet transport aircraft encountering severe clear-air turbulence in transonic flight during the descending phase will be examined as the study case. The flight results in sudden plunging motions with abrupt changes in attitude and gravitational acceleration (i.e. the normal load factor). Development of the required thrust and aerodynamic models with the flight data mining and the fuzzy-logic modeling techniques will be presented. The oscillatory derivatives extracted from these aerodynamic models are then used in the study of variations in stability characteristics during the sudden plunging motion. The fuzzy-logic aerodynamic models are utilized to estimate the nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics while performing numerical integration of flight dynamic equations. The eigenvalues of all motion modes are obtained during time integration. The present quantitative assessment method is an innovation to examine possible mitigation concepts of accident prevention and promote the understanding of aerodynamic responses of the jet transport aircraft.

Analysis of Vertical Earth Pressure Acting on Box Culverts through Centrifuge Model Test

Due to the lack of surface space, most structures are heading underground. The box culvert is underground infrastructure and serves to protect the buried structure from the underground environments, but it has a different characteristic from other structures in that the inner space is empty. Therefore, in this study, the vertical earth pressure which is the most significant effective stress acting on a box culvert was measured by conducting a geotechnical centrifuge model test. A box culvert was installed following the embankment installation method, and the vertical earth pressure acting on it was measured considering the cover depth, gravitational acceleration, and loading and unloading conditions. The soil pressure measured was greater than the existing theoretical value under high cover depth and the unloading condition, which is considered as the variability of many soils or the residual stress acting under the loading condition. Finally, a goodness-of-fit test was conducted as a part of variability analysis. The measured earth pressure was found to be considerably larger than the existing theoretical value, and the variability was large as well. This means the existing theoretical equation is under-designed, which should be reflected in future designs.

Strong/nuclear force in the dynamic medium of reference (DMR) theory. Nuclear deflection of light, nuclear time delay of light, and proposed experiment

The theory of the dynamic medium of reference has already been presented in several articles [Pignard, Phys. Essays 32, 422 (2019); 33, 395 (2020); 34, 61 (2021); 34, 279 (2021)], and in particular in Pignard, Phys. Essays 32, 422 (2019). The article [Pignard, Phys. Essays 34, 279 (2021)] gives an explanation and mathematical developments of the gravitational acceleration from atomic nuclei of a massive body. General relativity considers a massive body, like the Earth or the Sun, globally, macroscopically, simply as an object of mass M (which curves space‐time). However, when one goes into details, this mass M is made up of atoms which are themselves mainly made up of nuclei of nucleons (if we neglect the mass of electrons in comparison of that of the nucleus). Thus, it is mainly the nuclei of a massive body that create the force of gravity! The dynamic medium of reference theory determines the gravitational acceleration microscopically by taking into account all the atomic nuclei that make up a massive body [Pignard, Phys. Essays 32, 422 (2019)]. This creates a strong link between gravity and the nuclear domain. This article goes further with the description of a model of the atomic nucleus. This makes it possible to establish that the strong force or nuclear force, which ensures the cohesion of the nucleus, is due to the strong acceleration of the flux of the medium which is a vector average of the flux of gravitons. This gives an expression of the nuclear force similar to the force of gravity but with a constant K ≈ 1031 m s−2, much higher than the gravitational constant G. This article shows that the functioning, the mechanism of the nucleus, makes it possible to explain the nuclear force and also to find the gravitational acceleration. From there, it is deduced that the photons are deflected by the strong acceleration due to an atom nucleus. They are also slowed down by an atom nucleus which creates a delay in their travel time which we call the nuclear time delay of light. Finally, an experiment is proposed to verify the phenomenon of nuclear deflection of light and the nuclear time delay of light.

Marangoni instabilities of drops of different viscosities in stratified liquids

For an immiscible oil drop immersed in a stably stratified ethanol–water mixture, a downwards solutal Marangoni flow is generated on the surface of the drop, owing to the concentration gradient, and the resulting propulsion competes against the downwards gravitational acceleration of the heavy drop. In prior work of Li et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 126, issue 12, 2021, 124502), we found that for drops of low viscosity, an oscillatory instability of the Marangoni flow is triggered once the Marangoni advection is too strong for diffusion to restore the stratified concentration field around the drop. Here we experimentally explore the parameter space of the concentration gradient and drop radius for high oil viscosities and find a different and new mechanism for triggering the oscillatory instability in which diffusion is no longer the limiting factor. For such drops of higher viscosities, the instability is triggered when the gravitational effect is too strong so that the viscous stress cannot maintain a stable Marangoni flow. This leads to a critical drop radius above which the equilibrium is always unstable. Subsequently, a unifying scaling theory that includes both the mechanisms for low and for high viscosities of the oil drops is developed. The transition between the two mechanisms is found to be controlled by two length scales: the drop radius $R$ and the boundary layer thickness $\delta$ of the Marangoni flow around the drop. The instability is dominated by diffusion for $\delta < R$ and by viscosity for $R<\delta$ . The experimental results for various drops of different viscosities can well be described with this unifying scaling theory. Our theoretical description thus provides a unifying view of physicochemical hydrodynamic problems in which the Marangoni stress is competing with a stable stratification.