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2021 marked the 80th anniversary of Barbara McClintock's pioneering article on the breakage–fusion–bridge (BFB) cycle. Of the three steps of the BFB cycle, breakage remains the least understood despite its major contribution to mutagenesis. We discuss recent findings shedding light on how chromatin bridges break in yeast and animal cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wave setup corresponds to the increase in mean water level along the coast associated with the breaking of short-waves and is of key importance for coastal dynamics, as it contributes to storm surges and the generation of undertows. Although overall well explained by the divergence of the momentum flux associated with short waves in the surf zone, several studies reported substantial underestimations along the coastline. This paper investigates the impacts of the wave-induced circulation that takes place in the surf zone on wave setup, based on the analysis of 3D modelling results. A 3D phase-averaged modelling system using a vortex force formalism is applied to hindcast an unpublished field experiment, carried out at a dissipative beach under moderate to very energetic wave conditions ( H m 0 = 6 m at breaking and T p = 22 s ). When using an adaptive wave breaking parameterisation based on the beach slope, model predictions for water levels, short waves and undertows improved by about 30%, with errors reducing to 0.10 m, 0.10 m and 0.09 m/s, respectively. The analysis of model results suggests a very limited impact of the vertical circulation on wave setup at this dissipative beach. When extending this analysis to idealized simulations for different beach slopes ranging from 0.01 to 0.05, it shows that the contribution of the vertical circulation (horizontal and vertical advection and vertical viscosity terms) becomes more and more relevant as the beach slope increases. In contrast, for a given beach slope, the wave height at the breaking point has a limited impact on the relative contribution of the vertical circulation on the wave setup. For a slope of 0.05, the contribution of the terms associated with the vertical circulation accounts for up to 17% (i.e. a 20% increase) of the total setup at the shoreline, which provides a new explanation for the underestimations reported in previously published studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cellular processes require molecular motors to produce motion and forces. Single molecule experiments have led to a precise description of how a motor works. Under most physiological conditions, however, molecular motors operate in groups. Interactions between motors yield collective behaviors that cannot be explained only from single molecule properties. The aim of this paper is to review the various theoretical descriptions that explain the emergence of collective effects in molecular motor assemblies. These include bidirectional motion, hysteretic behavior, spontaneous oscillations, and self-organization into dynamical structures. We discuss motors acting on the cytoskeleton both in a prescribed geometry such as in muscles or flagella and in the cytoplasm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Wind-generated surface waves breaking in the nearshore cause an increase in mean water levels, the wave setup, which can represent a significant fraction of storm surges developing both along open coasts and over sheltered areas such as coastal lagoons and estuaries. A common way to simulate the wave setup is to assume a balance between the barotropic gradient and the divergence of the depth-integrated wave-averaged momentum flux (radiation stress) associated with breaking waves in the surf zone. Field observations collected at several sandy beaches revealed that this depth-integrated approach could largely underestimate the wave setup close to the shoreline. The present study builds on Guérin et al. (2018) and further investigates how representing the depth-varying wave forcing in modelling systems can improve the prediction of wave setup across the surf zone. We use data collected during two major field campaigns at Duck, N.C., combined with simulations with SCHISM, a three-dimensional (3D) phase-averaged modelling system employing the vortex-force formalism to represent the effects of waves on currents. The ability of SCHISM to reproduce the surf zone circulation is first assessed with data collected during October 1994 (Duck94), which serve as a classical benchmark for 3D hydrostatic oceanic circulation models. The wave setup dynamics are then analysed during a storm event that occurred during SandyDuck. Consistent with the results of Guérin et al. (2018), we find that resolving the depth-varying nearshore circulation results in increased and improved wave setup predictions across the surf zone. At the shoreline, depth-integrated approaches based on the vortex-force formalism or the radiation stress concept underestimate the maximal wave setup by 10%–15% and 30% on the 1:14 foreshore slope, respectively. An analysis of the 3D cross-shore momentum balance reveals that the vertical mixing is the second most important contributor (10%–15% across the surf zone) to the simulated wave setup after the wave forces (80%–90%), followed by the vertical advection whose contribution increases with the beach slope (up to 10% at the shoreline). Simulations performed with a phase-resolving numerical model suggest that the largest discrepancies observed at the shoreline in past studies likely originate from swash-related processes, highlighting the difficulties to disentangle wave and swash processes on steep foreshores in the field. • Simulation of wave-induced setup and depth-varying mean currents over barred beaches. • Wave breaking is the dominant forcing term of both the circulation and vertical mixing. • Resolving depth-varying currents improves predictions of wave setup at the shoreline. • Importance of resolving the depth-varying currents increases with the beach slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]