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This work studies the interaction between colliding plasma jets to understand regimes in which jet merging results in shock formation versus regimes in which the shock formation is mitigated due to the collisionless interpenetration of the jets. A kinetic model is required for this study because fluid models will always produce a shock upon the collision of plasma jets. The continuum-kinetic, Vlasov-Maxwell-Dougherty model with one velocity dimension is used to accurately capture shock heating, along with a novel coupling with a moment equation to evolve perpendicular temperature for computational efficiency. As a result, this relatively inexpensive simulation can be used for detailed scans of the parameter space towards predictions of shocked versus shock-mitigated regimes, which is of interest for several fusion concepts such as plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF), high-energy-density plasmas, astrophysical phenomena, and other laboratory plasmas. The initial results obtained using this approach are in agreement with the preliminary outcomes of the Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX).

BACKGROUND Intrahepatic cholestasis is one of the unique conditions specific to pregnancy and should be kept in mind when a patient presents with excessive pruritus seen during the late second and early third trimester of pregnancy, causing subtle alterations in liver functions with increased serum bile acids. This study intended to determine the prevalence of obstetric cholestasis in our hospital, its course and pregnancy outcome in these women. METHODS This is a prospective cross sectional study, carried out among the women attending the Department of OBG, Sri Ramachandra medical college. A total of 22 cases were observed to have obstetric cholestasis from those who attended the hospital during the study period. The data about the variables like patient identification details, demographic data, symptoms, laboratory parameters, feto-maternal outcomes were recorded like pre-existing medical conditions, mode of delivery, birth weight, Apgar score at 1 min and 5 mins and admission to NICU were recorded. Data collected were analysed and the data variables were represented appropriately. RESULTS A total of 1813 deliveries were conducted in the study setting during the study period. 1.2 % of cases were observed to have intrahepatic cholestasis. The mean gestational age of onset of obstetric cholestasis was 28 weeks. The mean age of the women considered for the study was 28.5 ± 2.8 years (22-34 years). The mean serum bile acid observed at the time of admission was 33.6 ± 25.2. The mean gestational age at the delivery of the study subjects was 36 W ± 5 days. 50 % of the women had laboured at term and 50 % of the women had preterm labour. 9 women (41 %) delivered through NVD and 13 women (59 %) delivered through lower segment caesarean section. One patient had recurrent cholestasis. The average Apgar score at 1 minute was 7 and at the end of 5 minutes it was 8. 50 % of the children admitted to NICU and 4 women gave the history of admissions into NICU of the babies born even in the previous deliveries, due to varied reasons. No perinatal or maternal mortality was observed during the study period. CONCLUSIONS Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is common among pregnant women which has an impact on feto-maternal outcomes. It is found to be responsible for a large number of perinatal and neonatal deaths especially after 36 weeks of gestation, but if appropriate antenatal care and timely intervention are implemented outcomes of pregnancy would be better. KEY WORDS Intra hepatic Cholestasis, Pregnancy, Ursodeoxycholic Acid, Pruritus.

A large family of plasmas has collisional mean-free-path much longer than the non-neutral sheath width, which scales with the plasma Debye length. The plasmas, particularly the electrons, assume strong temperature anisotropy in the sheath. The temperature in the sheath flow direction ([Formula: see text]) is lower and drops toward the wall as a result of the decompressional cooling by the accelerating sheath flow. The electron temperature in the transverse direction of the flow field ([Formula: see text]) not only is higher but also spikes up in the sheath. This abnormal behavior of [Formula: see text] spike is found to be the result of a negative gradient of the parallel heat flux of transverse degrees of freedom ( qes) in the sheath. The non-zero heat flux qes is induced by pitch-angle scattering of electrons via either their interaction with self-excited electromagnetic waves in a nearly collisionless plasma or Coulomb collision in a collisional plasma, or both in the intermediate regime of plasma collisionality.

The Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) is ubiquitous in nature and has been investigated in great detail in a number of theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies relevant to laboratory and sp...

This article considers two algorithms of a finite-volume solver for the MHD equations with a real-gas equation of state (EOS). Both algorithms use a multistate form of the Harten–Lax–Van Leer approximate Riemann solver as formulated for MHD discontinuities. This solver is modified to use the generalized sound speed from the real-gas EOS. Two methods are tested: EOS evaluation at cell centers and flux interfaces where the former is more computationally efficient. A battery of 1-D and 2-D tests is employed: convergence of 1-D and 2-D linearized waves, shock tube Riemann problems, a 2-D nonlinear circularly polarized Alfven wave, and a 2-D magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instability test. The cell-centered-EOS-evaluation algorithm produces unresolvable thermodynamic inconsistencies in the intermediate states leading to spurious solutions while the flux-interface EOS evaluation algorithm robustly produces the correct solution. The linearized wave tests show that this inconsistency is associated with the magnetosonic waves and the magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instability test demonstrates simulation results, where the spurious solution leads to an unphysical simulation.

The effect of the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse on the ionosphere is modeled using Sami3 is Also a Model of the Ionosphere (SAMI3). Due to the density gradient geometry that arises from the solar e...

Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities are prevalent in many physical regimes ranging from astrophysical to laboratory plasmas and have primarily been studied using fluid models, the majority of which have been ideal fluid models. This work is the first of its kind to present a 5-dimensional (2 spatial dimensions, 3 velocity space dimensions) simulation using the continuum-kinetic model to study the effect of the collisional mean-free-path and transport on the instability growth. The continuum-kinetic model provides noise-free access to the full particle distribution function permitting a detailed investigation of the role of kinetic physics in hydrodynamic phenomena such as the RT instability. For long mean-free-path, there is no RT instability growth, but as collisionality increases, particles relax towards the Maxwellian velocity distribution, and the kinetic simulations reproduce the fluid simulation results. An important and novel contribution of this work is in the intermediate collisional cases that are not accessible with traditional fluid models and require kinetic modeling. Simulations of intermediate collisional cases show that the RT instability evolution is significantly altered compared to the highly collisional fluid-like cases. Specifically, the growth rate of the intermediate collisionality RT instability is lower than the high collisionality case while also producing a significantly more diffused interface. The higher moments of the distribution function play a more significant role relative to inertial terms for intermediate collisionality during the evolution of the RT instability interface. Particle energy-flux is calculated from moments of the distribution and shows that transport is significantly altered in the intermediate collisional case and deviates much more so from the high collisionality limit of the fluid regime.

The plasma exit flow speed at the sheath entrance is constrained by the Bohm criterion. The so-called Bohm speed regulates the plasma particle and power exhaust fluxes to the wall, and it is commonly deployed as a boundary condition to exclude the sheath region in quasineutral plasma modeling. Here the Bohm criterion analysis is performed in the intermediate plasma regime away from the previously known limiting cases of adiabatic laws and the asymptotic limit of infinitesimal Debye length in a finite-size system, using the transport equations of an anisotropic plasma. The resulting Bohm speed has explicit dependence on local plasma heat flux, temperature isotropization, and thermal force. Comparison with kinetic simulations demonstrates its accuracy over the plasma-sheath transition region in which quasineutrality is weakly perturbed and the Bohm criterion applies.

The ion exit flow speed at the sheath entrance is constrained by the Bohm criterion, which is used as a boundary condition for simulations that do not resolve the sheath region. Traditional Bohm criterion analysis invokes the equation of state and, thus, ignores transport physics in the sheath transition problem. An expression for the Bohm speed away from the asymptotic limit is derived from a set of anisotropic plasma transport equations. The thermal force, collisional temperature isotropization, and heat flux enter into the evaluation of the Bohm speed. By comparison with kinetic simulation results, this expression is shown to be accurate in the presheath–sheath transition region rather than a single point at the sheath entrance over a broad range of collisionality.

In the presence of a strong electric field perpendicular to the magnetic field, the electron cross-field (E$\times$B) flow relative to the unmagnetized ions can cause the Electron Cyclotron Drift Instability (ECDI) due to resonances of the ion acoustic mode and the electron cyclotron harmonics. This occurs in collisionless shock ramps in space, and in $\rm{E \times B}$ discharge devices such as Hall thrusters. ECDI can induce an electron flow parallel to the background E field at a speed greatly exceeding predictions by classical collision theory. Such anomalous transport may lead to particle thermalization at space shocks, and may cause unfavorable plasma flows towards the walls of E$\times$B devices. The development of ECDI and anomalous transport is often considered fully-kinetic. In this work, however, we demonstrate that a reduced variant of this instability, and more importantly, the associated anomalous transport, can be treated self-consistently in a two-fluid framework without any collision. By treating electrons and ions on an equal footing, the free energy allows the growth of an anomalous electron flow parallel to the background E field. We first present linear analyses of the instability in the two-fluid 5- and 10-moment models, and compare them against the fully-kinetic theory. At lower temperatures, the two-fluid fastest-growing mode is in good agreement with the kinetic result. Also, by including more ($>=10$) moments, secondary (and possibly higher) unstable branches can be recovered. The dependence of the instability on various parameters is also explored. We then carry out direct numerical simulations of the cross-field setup using the 5-moment model. The growth of the instability and the anomalous transport is confirmed. Finally, 5-moment and Vlasov simulations using identical parameters in the lower-temperature regime are performed, showing reasonable agreement., 17 pages, 11 pages

Elevated CUB-domain containing protein 1 (CDCP1) is predictive of colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence and poor patient survival. While CDCP1 expression identifies stem cell populations that mediate lung metastasis, mechanisms underlying the role of this cell surface receptor in CRC have not been defined. We sought to identify CDCP1 regulated processes in CRC using stem cell populations, enriched from primary cells and cell lines, in extensive in vitro and in vivo assays. These experiments, demonstrating that CDCP1 is functionally important in CRC tumor initiation, growth and metastasis, identified CDCP1 as a positive regulator of Wnt signaling. Detailed cell fractionation, immunoprecipitation, microscopy, and immunohistochemical analyses demonstrated that CDCP1 promotes translocation of the key regulators of Wnt signaling, β-catenin, and E-cadherin, to the nucleus. Of functional importance, disruption of CDCP1 reduces nuclear localized, chromatin-associated β-catenin and nuclear localized E-cadherin, increases sequestration of these proteins in cell membranes, disrupts regulation of CRC promoting genes, and reduces CRC tumor burden. Thus, disruption of CDCP1 perturbs pro-cancerous Wnt signaling including nuclear localization of β-catenin and E-cadherin.

This paper presents a brief survey of a variety of plasma modeling techniques applied to several space- and fusion-relevant plasma instabilities that are presently of significant interest. These in...

Density irregularities have been observed in subauroral polarization streams (SAPS). One hypothesis of the cause of this ionospheric turbulence, based on the background morphology, is the gradient ...

Studies have shown that in sheared $\mathbf{E}\times\mathbf{B}$ flows in an inhomogeneous ionospheric plasma, the gradient drift (GDI) or the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KHI) instability may grow. This work examines the conditions that cause one of these instabilities to dominate over the other using a novel model to study localized ionospheric instabilities. The effect of collisions with neutral particles plays an important role in the instability development. It is found that the KHI is dominant in low collisionality regimes, the GDI is dominant in high collisionality regimes, and there exists an intermediate region in which both instabilities exist in tandem. For low collisionality cases in which the velocity shear is sufficiently far from the density gradient, the GDI is found to grow as a secondary instability extending from the KHI vortices. The inclusion of a neutral wind driven electric field in the direction of the velocity shear does not impact the dominance of either instability. Using data from empirical ionospheric models, two altitude limits are found. For altitudes above the higher limit, the KHI is dominant. For altitudes below the lower limit, the GDI is dominant. In the intermediate region, both instabilities grow together. Increasing the velocity shear causes both limits to be lower in altitude. This implies that for ionospheric phenomena whose density and velocity gradients span large altitude ranges, such as subauroral polarization streams, the instabilities observed by space-based and ground-based observation instruments could be significantly different., 14 pages, 8 figures

This manuscript presents verification cases that are developed to study the electrothermal instability (ETI). Specific verification cases are included to ensure that the unit physics components necessary to model the ETI are accurate, providing a path for fluid-based codes to effectively simulate ETI in the linear and nonlinear growth regimes. Two software frameworks with different algorithmic approaches are compared for accuracy in their ability to simulate diffusion of a magnetic field, linear growth of the ETI, and a fully nonlinear ETI evolution. The nonlinear ETI simulations show early time agreement, with some differences emerging, as noted in the wavenumber spectrum, late into the nonlinear development of ETI. A sensitivity study explores the role of equation-of-state (EOS), vacuum density, and vacuum resistivity. EOS and vacuum resistivity are found to be the most critical factors in the modeling of nonlinear ETI development., 14 pages, 14 figures, To be published in the journal of High Energy Density Physics

This work numerically investigates the role of viscosity and resistivity in Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities in magnetized high-energy-density (HED) plasmas for a high Atwood number and high plasma beta regimes surveying across plasma beta and magnetic Prandtl numbers. The numerical simulations are performed using the visco-resistive magnetohydrodynamic equations. Results presented here show that the inclusion of self-consistent viscosity and resistivity in the system drastically changes the growth of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) as well as modifies its internal structure at smaller scales. It is seen here that the viscosity has a stabilizing effect on the RTI. Moreover, the viscosity inhibits the development of small-scale structures and also modifies the morphology of the tip of the RTI spikes. On the other hand, the resistivity reduces the magnetic field stabilization, supporting the development of small-scale structures. The morphology of the RTI spikes is seen to be unaffected by the presence of resistivity in the system. An additional novelty of this work is in the disparate viscosity and resistivity profiles that may exist in HED plasmas and their impact on RTI growth, morphology and the resulting turbulence spectra. Furthermore, this work shows that the dynamics of the magnetic field is independent of viscosity and likewise the resistivity does not affect the dissipation of enstrophy and kinetic energy. In addition, power law scalings of enstrophy, kinetic energy and magnetic field energy are provided in both the injection range and inertial sub-range, which could be useful for understanding RTI induced turbulent mixing in HED laboratory and astrophysical plasmas and could aid in the interpretation of observations of RTI-induced turbulence spectra.

This work discusses the application of an affine reconstructed nodal DG method for unstructured grids of triangles. Solving the diffusion terms in the DG method is non-trivial due to the solution representations being piecewise continuous. Hence, the diffusive flux is not defined on the interface of elements. The proposed numerical approach reconstructs a smooth solution in a parallelogram that is enclosed by the quadrilateral formed by two adjacent triangle elements. The interface between these two triangles is the diagonal of the enclosed parallelogram. Similar to triangles, the mapping of parallelograms from a physical domain to a reference domain is an affine mapping, which is necessary for an accurate and efficient implementation of the numerical algorithm. Thus, all computations can still be performed on the reference domain, which promotes efficiency in computation and storage. This reconstruction does not make assumptions on choice of polynomial basis. Reconstructed DG algorithms have previously been developed for modal implementations of the convection-diffusion equations. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first practical guideline that has been proposed for applying the reconstructed algorithm on a nodal discontinuous Galerkin method with a focus on accuracy and efficiency. The algorithm is demonstrated on a number of benchmark cases as well as a challenging substantive problem in HED hydrodynamics with highly disparate diffusion parameters., 36 pages, 18 figures

Endometriosis is a crippling disease characterized by the presence of endometrium-like tissue or scar outside the uterine cavity, commonly confined to the peritoneal and serosal surfaces of the pelvic organs. 10–15% of women in reproductive age are estimated to be affected by endometriosis. Most of these patients present with infertility and suffer from pelvic pain. The benign disease rarely progresses to malignancy. Regardless of its high prevalence, the pathogenesis of the disease is not fully understood. Treatment options for endometriosis are limited and are often based on a symptomatic approach. The unavailability of proper diagnostic approaches, fewer therapeutic options, and sparse understanding of molecular alterations are responsible for the continued disease burden. Exploring the molecular elements causing the pathogenesis of endometriosis may lead to a number of breakthroughs in the treatment of the illness, such as the discovery of new biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic targets that can be a guide to better prognosis and reduced recurrence. The goal of this review is to provide the reader a critical understanding of the disease by summarizing the genetic, immunological, hormonal, and epigenetic deregulations that support the molecular basis for development of endometriotic cyst, with a special focus on the study models needed to analyze these changes in the endometriotic microenvironment.

This manuscript presents a new theoretical contribution toward the growth rate of the “fast” form of electrothermal instability (ETI) in the presence of anomalous resistivity (AR). Current-driven ETI is present in all pulsed-power platforms, and has been shown to seed the disruptive magneto Rayleigh–Taylor instability. Fluid simulations of low-density, current-carrying plasmas are often subject to nonphysical runaway Ohmic heating due to an under predicted resistivity when using purely collisional resistivity models. AR models provide mechanisms to increase the resistivity as the drift speed increases through increased current density. The derivation of a new, generalized growth rate is presented for the ETI, which includes a resistivity that is dependent on current density, and marks the key contributions of this work. This new growth rate is then compared to the growth rate without AR. Although the striation form of the ETI growth rate is unaffected by the inclusion of AR, the filamentation form of the ETI growth rate depends on the AR. Hence, the new growth rate is verified through 1D simulations of the filamentation form of ETI. The impact of AR can be significant: up to twelve orders of magnitude on the temporally varying local growth rate for a certain choice of parameters. For experimentally relevant conditions based on kinetic simulations, the growth rate can be increased by up to four orders of magnitude if the AR is dominated by the lower-hybrid drift instability.

Recent advances in plasma modeling have allowed development of sophisticated plasma fluid and kinetic simulation tools for a wide range of parameter regimes. This short paper presents some illustra...

This paper presents a brief overview of the application of advanced plasma modeling techniques to several space science and engineering problems currently of significant interest. Recent advances in both kinetic and fluid modeling provide the ability to study a wide variety of problems that may be important to space plasmas including spacecraft–environment interactions, plasma–material interactions for propulsion systems such as Hall thrusters, ionospheric plasma instabilities, plasma separation from magnetic nozzles, active space experiments, and a host of additional problems. Some of the key findings are summarized here.

Epstein-Barr virus-associated smooth muscle tumour (EBV-SMT) is an uncommon, under-recognised but distinct clinicopathological entity that occurs in the setting of immunosuppression. Predisposition of organ transplant patients to smooth muscle tumours was originally recognised by Pritzker et al., in 19701 and the link to EBV infection was first reported by a French pathologist in 1994.2 The following year, two groups of US researchers separately reported on handful of paediatric patients with EBV associated smooth muscle tumours in the setting of organ transplant3 and HIV,4 respectively. To date, over 200 cases have been reported in the English literature. It is seen in post organ or stem cell transplant patients, HIV/AIDS and congenital immunodeficiencies. 1.1. Case presentation A 35 year old woman from Papua New Guinea was referred to our tertiary centre with obstructive urinary tract symptoms. Her symptoms developed during pregnancy over 6 months and required an indwelling catheter for acute urinary retention. Her medical history is significant for positive HIV serology and she is currently on antiretroviral therapy - Lopinavir/Ritonavir (200/50 mg) twice daily and Lumivudine/Tenofovir (300/300 mg) nightly. CD4 count at presentation was 0.43 × 109 and her HIV viral load was 398 RNA/ml. Radiological examination of the pelvis showed a 7.0 × 5.0 cm mass involving the bladder neck and vaginal wall (Fig. 1A–C). Three neoplastic lesions measuring up to 7.9 cm were also identified in the liver on further imaging, raising possibility of a pelvic malignancy with hepatic metastases. Cystoscopy and biopsy were performed and a mobile soft 15 cm mass attached to the right urethral wall, bladder, and vaginal walls was biopsied. Open in a separate window Fig. 1 A) Coronal and B) Axial CT sections of large bladder tumour C) Axial CT Section of hepatic mass.

Multifluid simulations of plasma sheaths are increasingly used to model a wide variety of problems in plasma physics ranging from global magnetospheric flows around celestial bodies to plasma-wall interactions in thrusters and fusion devices. For multifluid problems, accurate boundary conditions to model an absorbing wall that resolves a classical sheath remains an open research area. This work justifies the use of vacuum boundary conditions for absorbing walls to show comparable accuracy between a multifluid sheath and lower moments of a continuum-kinetic sheath.

Skeletal metastases present a major clinical challenge for prostate cancer patient care, inflicting distinctive mixed osteoblastic and osteolytic lesions that cause morbidity and refractory skeletal complications. Macrophages are abundant in bone and bone marrow and can influence both osteoblast and osteoclast function in physiology and pathology. Herein, we examined the role of macrophages in prostate cancer bone lesions, particularly the osteoblastic response. First, macrophage and lymphocyte distributions were qualitatively assessed in patient's prostate cancer skeletal lesions by immunohistochemistry. Second, macrophage functional contributions to prostate tumour growth in bone were explored using an immune-competent mouse model combined with two independent approaches to achieve in vivo macrophage depletion: liposome encapsulated clodronate that depletes phagocytic cells (including macrophages and osteoclasts); and targeted depletion of CD169(+) macrophages using a suicide gene knock-in model. Immunohistochemistry and histomorphometric analysis were performed to quantitatively assess cancer-induced bone changes. In human bone metastasis specimens, CD68(+) macrophages were consistently located within the tumour mass. Osteal macrophages (osteomacs) were associated with pathological woven bone within the metastatic lesions. In contrast, lymphocytes were inconsistently present in prostate cancer skeletal lesions and when detected, had varied distributions. In the immune-competent mouse model, CD169(+) macrophage ablation significantly inhibited prostate cancer-induced woven bone formation, suggesting that CD169(+) macrophages within pathological woven bone are integral to tumour-induced bone formation. In contrast, pan-phagocytic cell, but not targeted CD169(+) macrophage depletion resulted in increased tumour mass, indicating that CD169(-) macrophage subset(s) and/or osteoclasts influenced tumour growth. In summary, these observations indicate a prominent role for macrophages in prostate cancer bone metastasis that may be therapeutically targetable to reduce the negative skeletal impacts of this malignancy, including tumour-induced bone modelling. Copyright © 2016 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell carcinoma (HLRCC) syndrome secondary to germline fumarate hydratase (FH) mutation presents with cutaneous and uterine leiomyomas, and a distinctive aggressive renal carcinoma. Identification of HLRCC patients presenting first with uterine leiomyomas may allow early intervention for renal carcinoma. We reviewed the morphology and immunohistochemical (IHC) findings in patients with uterine leiomyomas and confirmed or presumed HLRCC. IHC was also performed on a tissue microarray of unselected uterine leiomyomas and leiomyosarcomas. FH-deficient leiomyomas underwent Sanger and massively parallel sequencing on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue. All 5 patients with HLRCC had at least 1 FH-deficient leiomyoma: defined as completely negative FH staining with positive internal controls. One percent (12/1152) of unselected uterine leiomyomas but 0 of 88 leiomyosarcomas were FH deficient. FH-deficient leiomyoma patients were younger (42.7 vs. 48.8 y, P=0.024) and commonly demonstrated a distinctive hemangiopericytomatous vasculature. Other features reported to be associated with FH-deficient leiomyomas (hypercellularity, nuclear atypia, inclusion-like nucleoli, stromal edema) were inconstantly present. Somatic FH mutations were identified in 6 of 10 informative unselected FH-deficient leiomyomas. None of these mutations were found in the germline. We conclude that, while the great majority of patients with HLRCC will have FH-deficient leiomyomas, 1% of all uterine leiomyomas are FH deficient usually due to somatic inactivation. Although IHC screening for FH may have a role in confirming patients at high risk for hereditary disease before genetic testing, prospective identification of FH-deficient leiomyomas is of limited clinical benefit in screening unselected patients because of the relatively high incidence of somatic mutations.

The aims of this study were to investigate the immunohistochemical expression and potential prognostic significance of putative cancer stems cell markers ALDH1, EZH2 and SOX2 in prostate cancer.A total of 142 consecutive radical prostatectomies submitted to one laboratory with a diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma between 2008 and 2012 were retrieved and retrospectively studied. Immunohistochemistry for the three markers was performed in each case and both univariate and multivariate analyses were undertaken to evaluate the correlation between the staining patterns and known histopathological prognostic features.ALDH1 showed a statistically significant association with tumour stage p

Continuum kinetic simulations of plasmas, where particle distribution functions are directly discretized in phase-space, permit fully kinetic simulations without the statistical noise of particle-in-cell methods. Recent advances in numerical algorithms have made continuum kinetic simulations computationally competitive. This work presents a continuum kinetic description of high-fidelity wall boundary conditions that utilize the readily available particle distribution function without coupling to additional physical models. The boundary condition is realized through a reflection function that can capture a wide range of cases from simple specular reflection to more involved first principles models. While the framework is usable for various numerical methods and boundary conditions, this work focuses on the discontinuous Galerkin implementation of electron emission using a first-principles quantum-mechanical model. Presented results demonstrate effects of electron emission from a dielectric material on formation of a classical plasma sheath.

Elevated CUB-domain containing protein 1 (CDCP1) is predictive of colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence and poor patient survival. While CDCP1 expression identifies stem cell populations that mediate lung metastasis, mechanisms underlying the role of this cell surface receptor in CRC have not been defined. We sought to identify CDCP1 regulated processes in CRC using stem cell populations, enriched from primary cells and cell lines, in extensive in vitro and in vivo assays. These experiments, demonstrating that CDCP1 is functionally important in CRC tumor initiation, growth and metastasis, identified CDCP1 as a positive regulator of Wnt signaling. Detailed cell fractionation, immunoprecipitation, microscopy, and immunohistochemical analyses demonstrated that CDCP1 promotes translocation of the key regulators of Wnt signaling, β-catenin, and E-cadherin, to the nucleus. Of functional importance, disruption of CDCP1 reduces nuclear localized, chromatin-associated β-catenin and nuclear localized E-cadherin, increases sequestration of these proteins in cell membranes, disrupts regulation of CRC promoting genes, and reduces CRC tumor burden. Thus, disruption of CDCP1 perturbs pro-cancerous Wnt signaling including nuclear localization of β-catenin and E-cadherin.

Recent results from experiments and simulation [1], [2] of magnetically driven pulsed power liners have explored the role of the early-time electrothermal instability in the evolution of the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Our focus will be on understanding the development of such instabilities and the potential stabilization mechanisms, which we expect could play a significant role in supporting the success of the MagLIF (Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion) program. MagLIF is a particularly promising emerging concept for producing fusion energy in amounts greater than breakeven. Better understanding of magnetoRayleigh-Taylor instabilities through advanced modeling will improve the MagLIF concept. Experiments have shown that studies of high-energy density plasmas from wire-array implosions require physics modeling that goes well beyond simple models such as ideal magnetohydrodynamics. The goal of this work is to provide increased understanding of these experiments by employing simulations with a multifluid extended-MHD model, which uses kinetic closures for thermal conductivity, resistivity, and viscosity. We will use codes easily available to the wider research community, including university students, with a secondary goal of providing the community with well-benchmarked tools capable of advanced modeling of high-energy-density plasmas. This proposal also pioneers a hybrid fluid-kinetic modeling approach that is applicable to other high-energydensity physics scenarios.

Single-collision Monte-Carlo coupled with an electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) code is being used to solve the Maxwell-Boltzmann equations for many applications including gas switches, electrical discharges, and modeling gas breakdown from an intense electron beam. In these and other applications, collisions with a weakly-ionized gas are handled on a collision-by-collision basis. To be accurate, the cross-section set must have a complete set of inelastic cross sections in addition to cross sections for elastic scattering and ionization. To avoid numerical plasma heating either the plasma Debye length must also be resolved or an energy-conserving particle push must be employed. Some way of also limiting an exponentially growing number of PIC particles must be implemented. Accurate representation of the ionization process requires a sufficient number of PIC particles in the tail of the electron-energy distribution function (eedf). This makes it necessary to have hundreds to thousands of PIC particles per cell which makes detailed modeling of complex 3D geometries computationally intensive.

Hydrodynamic instabilities such as the Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer–Meshkov instabilities disrupt inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions through the growth of 3D perturbations. Growth of these 3D imperfections at the interfaces of an ICF capsule during implosion lead to mixing between materials that is detrimental to performance. These instabilities have been studied extensively in planar geometry, but such experiments lack the effects of convergence in spherical implosions. While several studies have been performed in spherical geometry, these often lack a direct means to measure perturbation growth. Experiments in cylindrical geometry include convergence effects while maintaining direct diagnostic access. Although cylinders have less compression than spheres, they do provide an excellent platform to validate modeling for convergent geometries. The problem with previous cylindrical implosion experiments was that the convergence ratios were limited to ∼4. With the National Ignition Facility (NIF), larger cylindrical targets can be driven to convergences of 10–15 while maintaining a large enough final diameter to measure perturbation growth. This paper reviews the design process used to both benchmark radiation hydrodynamics codes and enable 1D post-processed simulations to explore design space to separate compression effects from acceleration/deceleration RT instability. Results from 1D simulations suggest that cylindrical implosions on the NIF can produce high-convergence experiments to validate RT instability growth for ICF implosions.