Classical Mode Research Articles

Charismatic leadership accountability under international criminal law

Existing modes of liability in international law have been derived from the experiences of the Holocaust and the Nuremberg Trials. Since then, international criminal responsibility has developed in how it addresses and responds to international crimes, albeit primarily in the context of warfare characterised by well-organised hierarchical structures where leaders possess a defined scope of influence and ‘effective control’ over their subordinates. Charismatic leadership breaks down this strict understanding of organisations and ‘effective control’ and demonstrates the need for a broader understanding of international criminal liability. It introduces scenarios where despite the absence of a formal, hierarchical organisation or superior–subordinate relationship, the leader plays a determining role in crime commission and directly and effectively shapes their subordinates’ behaviours. This article examines whether such situations are captured by the existing framework for leaders’ liability under international criminal law, using Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe Vélez and the crimes committed during and after his presidency as a case study. In doing so, the article underlines the tensions and shortcomings of the current modes of liability when seeking accountability of charismatic leaders while stressing the need to reconceptualise and revisit classic modes of liability to answer to less formalised leadership styles.

Genuine Many-Body Quantum Scars along Unstable Modes in Bose-Hubbard Systems.

The notion of many-body quantum scars is associated with special eigenstates, usually concentrated in certain parts of Hilbert space, that give rise to robust persistent oscillations in a regime that globally exhibits thermalization. Here we extend these studies to many-body systems possessing a true classical limit characterized by a high-dimensional chaotic phase space, which are not subject to any particular dynamical constraint. We demonstrate genuine quantum scarring of wave functions concentrated in the vicinity of unstable classical periodic mean-field modes in the paradigmatic Bose-Hubbard model. These peculiar quantum many-body states exhibit distinct phase-space localization about those classical modes. Their existence is consistent with Heller's scar criterion and appears to persist in the thermodynamic long-lattice limit. Launching quantum wave packets along such scars leads to observable long-lasting oscillations, featuring periods that scale asymptotically with classical Lyapunov exponents, and displaying intrinsic irregularities that reflect the underlying chaotic dynamics, as opposed to regular tunnel oscillations.

Applicability of leadership modes outside the negotiation framework: insights from China

Drawing insights from a qualitative content analysis of China’s national climate reports between 2016 and 2019, this article examines the extent to which classical leadership typologies introduced by Oran Young, Arild Underdal, and Raino Malnes in the early 1990s have explanatory power outside of international climate negotiation frameworks. Mode by mode, we assess the strengths and weaknesses of four classical leadership modes—directional, ideational, instrumental, and structural—to grasp the manifestation of international climate leadership in a domestic context. While the analysis points out some substantial weaknesses in classical leadership modes, it indicates that China has taken consistent efforts to offer climate leadership in a domestic context. Given the huge gap between the leadership literature and the planetary reality; however, the article concludes that the key shortcoming of the leadership literature is that it tends to focus exclusively on the negotiation phase of international climate politics. Therefore, prospective studies on climate leadership have to pay more attention to the locus of leadership.

Short Memory-Based Human Strategy Modeling in Social Dilemmas

Human decision-making processes are complex. It is thus challenging to mine human strategies from real games in social networks. To model human strategies in social dilemmas, we conducted a series of human subject experiments in which the temporal two-player non-cooperative games among 1092 players were intensively investigated. Our goal is to model the individuals’ moves in the next round based on the information observed in each round. Therefore, the developed model is a strategy model based on short-term memory. Due to the diversity of user strategies, we first cluster players’ behaviors to aggregate them with similar strategies for the following modeling. Through behavior clustering, our observations show that the performance of the tested binary strategy models can be highly promoted in the largest behavior groups. Our results also suggest that no matter whether in the classical mode or the dissipative mode, the influence of individual accumulated payoffs on individual behavior is more significant than the gaming result of the last round. This result challenges a previous consensus that individual moves largely depend on the gaming result of the last round. Therefore, our model provides a novel perspective for understanding the evolution of human altruistic behavior.

Identification of novel T-cell epitopes on monkeypox virus and development of multi-epitopes vaccine using immunoinformatics approaches

Monkeypox virus (MPV) is closely related to the smallpox virus, and previous data from Africa suggest that the smallpox vaccine (VARV) is at least 85% effective in preventing MPV. No multi-epitope vaccine has yet been developed to prevent MPV infection. In this work, we used in silico structural biology and advanced immunoinformatic strategies to design a multi-epitope subunit vaccine against MPV infection. The designed vaccine sequence is adjuvanted with CpG-ODN and includes HTL/CTL epitopes for similar proteins between vaccinia virus (VACV) that induced T-cell production in vaccinated volunteers and the first draft sequence of the MPV genome associated with the suspected outbreak in several countries, May 2022. In addition, the specific binding of the modified vaccine and the immune Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) was estimated by molecular interaction studies. Strong interaction in the binding groove as well as good docking scores confirmed the stringency of the modified vaccine. The stability of the interaction was confirmed by a classical molecular dynamics simulation and normal mode analysis. Then, the immune simulation also indicated the ability of this vaccine to induce an effective immune response against MPV. Codon optimization and in silico cloning of the vaccine into the pET-28a (+) vector also showed its expression potential in the E. coli K12 system. The promising data obtained from the various in silico studies indicate that this vaccine is effective against MPV. However, additional in vitro and in vivo studies are still needed to confirm its efficacy. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Tunable hybrid silicon single-electron transistor–nanoscale field-effect transistor operating at room temperature

A hybrid silicon single-electron transistor (SET)–field-effect transistor (FET), tunable by gate voltages between single-electron and classical FET operation, at room temperature (RT) is demonstrated. The device uses a side-gated, ∼6 nm wide, heavily doped n+ silicon fin. A gate-controlled transition occurs from a depletion mode FET, including characteristic output saturation, to a quantum dot SET with “Coulomb diamond” characteristics above and near the threshold voltage, respectively. Below the threshold voltage, p-FET behavior implies ambipolar operation. Statistics for 180 research devices show a high yield of ∼37% for RT SET–FET operation and mean single-electron addition energy ∼0.3 eV. This yield also demonstrates the probability of single-electron effects in highly scaled doped nanoFETs and the possibility of electrically tunable, RT quantum and classical mode, nanoelectronic circuits.

Towards a free energy-based elastic network model and its application to the SARS-COV2 binding to ACE2

Classical normal mode analysis (cNMA) is a standard method for studying the equilibrium vibrations of macromolecules. A major limitation of cNMA is that it requires a cumbersome step of energy minimization that also alters the input structure significantly. Variants of normal mode analysis (NMA) exist that perform NMA directly on PDB structures without energy minimization, while maintaining most of the accuracy of cNMA. Spring-based NMA (sbNMA) is such a model. sbNMA uses an all-atom force field as cNMA does, which includes bonded terms such as bond stretching, bond angle bending, torsional, improper, and non-bonded terms such as van der Waals interactions. Electrostatics was not included in sbNMA because it introduced negative spring constants. In this work, we present a way to incorporate most of the electrostatic contributions in normal mode computations, which marks another significant step toward a free-energy-based elastic network model (ENM) for NMA. The vast majority of ENMs are entropy models. One significance of having a free energy-based model for NMA is that it allows one to study the contributions of both entropy and enthalpy. As an application, we apply this model to study the binding stability between SARS-COV2 and angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (or ACE2). Our results show that the stability at the binding interface is contributed nearly equally by hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds.

Block-wise recursive sliding variational mode decomposition method and its application on online separating of bridge vehicle-induced strain monitoring signals

A critical element of structural intelligence monitoring is to separate the vehicle-induced response from the original monitoring signal in real time. To separate the vehicle-induced strain components from the strain monitoring signals mixed with various load effects, an online recursive sliding variational mode decomposition method is proposed in this paper. A real-time online signal separation framework is first proposed; then four technical measures are taken to modify the classical variational mode decomposition (VMD) to address the problems of its time-consuming nature and unsuitable for online use. These measures include: by establishing the block recursive Fourier transform results between frames in the sliding, which significantly reducing calculation time and achieving the best balance between calculation efficiency and real-time performance; during iteration, the center frequency is initialized to avoid possible traps; the convergence criterion is tightened; displacement technology eliminates boundary effects during sliding. Simulations show that the proposed method has a better separation effect than VMD, and its operation speed is much higher than VMD, which meets the real-time requirements of online signal separation. Based on the real-time data collected by Daishan Second Bridge Health Monitoring System strain sensors, the proposed recursive sliding variational mode decomposition (RSVMD) realizes the online real-time separation of vehicle-induced strain signals, proving its capability and potential in actual bridge health monitoring.

Weak values and the past of a quantum particle

We investigate four key issues with using a nonzero weak value of the spatial projection operator to infer the past path of an individual quantum particle. First, we note that weak measurements disturb a system, so any approach relying on such a perturbation to determine the location of a quantum particle describes the state of a disturbed system, not that of a hypothetical undisturbed system. Secondly, even assuming no disturbance, there is no reason to associate the non-zero weak value of an operator containing the spatial projection operator with the classical idea of `particle presence'. Thirdly, weak values are only measurable over ensembles, and so to infer properties of individual particles from values of them is problematic. Finally, weak value approaches to the path of a particle do not provide information beyond standard quantum mechanics (and the classical modes supporting the experiment). We know of no experiment with testable consequences that demonstrates a connection between particle presence and weak values.

The Architecture of Object-Based Attention

The allocation of attention to objects raises several intriguing questions: What are objects, how does attention access them, what anatomical regions are involved? Here, we review recent progress in the field to determine the mechanisms underlying object-based attention. First, findings from unconscious priming and cueing suggest that the preattentive targets of object-based attention can be fully developed object representations that have reached the level of identity. Next, the control of object-based attention appears to come from ventral visual areas specialized in object analysis that project downward to early visual areas. How feedback from object areas can accurately target the object's specific locations and features is unknown but recent work in autoencoding has made this plausible. Finally, we suggest that the three classic modes of attention may not be as independent as is commonly considered, and instead could all rely on object-based attention. Specifically, studies show that attention can be allocated to the separated members of a group-without affecting the space between them-matching the defining property of feature-based attention. At the same time, object-based attention directed to a single small item has the properties of space-based attention. We outline the architecture of object-based attention, the novel predictions it brings, and discuss how it works in parallel with other attention pathways.

Functionalization of 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2Н-pyran-2-one under the conditions of the modified Biginelli reaction

The features of the interaction of 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2 H -pyran-2-one with aromatic aldehydes and urea in the one-pot mode of the classical mode, as well as using thermal and microwave activation of The Biginelli reaction variants, were studied. Depending on the conditions of single-reactory processes, previously unknown 3-[amino(aryl)methyl]-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2 H -pyran-2-one, arylmethylenebis-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2 H -pyran2-one, hybrid system - 2-hydroxy-7-methyl-4-(3-nitrophenyl)-4,4a-dihydro-5 H -pyrano[4,3- d ]pyrimidine-5-one in the case of transformation with aryl aldehyde containing an electron-acceptor substitute.

Electrostatics-Induced Nucleated Conformational Transition of Protein Aggregation.

Despite the wide existence of protein aggregation in nature and its intimate connection to many human diseases, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we develop a molecular theory by systematically incorporating the self-consistent field theory for charged macromolecules into the dilute solution thermodynamics. The kinetic pathway is tracked without any restriction on the morphology of the aggregates. We find that protein aggregation at low salt concentrations is via a two-step nucleated process involving a conformational transition from metastable spherical oligomer to elongated fibril. The scaling analysis elucidates the electrostatic origin of the conformational transition: the fibril enters the screening region much earlier than the spherical aggregate. As salt concentration increases, the classical mode of one-step nucleation corresponding to macroscopic liquid-liquid phase separation is recovered. Our results reveal that the screened electrostatic interaction is essential for the existence of the metastable oligomer and its subsequent conformational transition to fibril. The theoretical predictions of the kinetic pathway and the morphology of the aggregates are in good agreement with the experimental observations of real proteins.

Classical Majorana-like zero modes in an acoustic Kitaev chain

The one-dimensional Kitaev chain, being one of the most significant superconductor models that support Majorana fermions, has been considered as a highly probable method to host nonlocal qubits for topological quantum computation. Here we theoretically introduce the concept into the classical-wave systems and report the first experimental prototype of the acoustic Kitaev chain. We rigorously demonstrate the acoustic correspondence of the Kitaev chain and experimentally observe the classical unpaired Majorana-like zero mode in a well-designed acoustic spinless $p$-wave superconductor. In particular, clear physical evidence also demonstrates such exotic acoustic modes can be manipulated to a certain extend like a quasiparticle, which is directly identified by employing a Kitaev ``keyboard.'' These results are expected to open new avenues for novel applications of topological acoustics.

Induction Motor Noise Source Separation and Identification Based on Adaptive Scale-Space Mode Extraction

Separating induction motor noise sources can provide an important reference basis for induction motor condition detection, noise reduction treatment, and fault diagnosis. Induction motors have different types of noise sources that partially overlap, and most radiate outward through the housing, so it is difficult to separate these noise sources. Therefore, a single-channel induction motor noise source separation and identification method, based on adaptive scale-space modal extraction (ASSME) is proposed. Firstly, the adaptive scale-space mode extraction method is proposed by constructing the electromagnetic feature scale space and the adaptive penalty factor. The simulation results show that this method solves over-decomposition problems in the classical scale-space variational mode decomposition and the difficulty in balancing the harmonic and shock modes. Secondly, motor noise experiments are conducted to construct blind source separation multi-channel inputs using the adaptive scale-space modal extraction method, judging the validity of the modal components using correlation and the variance contribution rate. Finally, robust independent component analysis (RobustICA) is used to extract independent noise components and identify these noise sources by power spectral density and envelope analysis. The results show that the multi-channel input signals obtained by the proposed method are more accurate and practical than those obtained by other methods. The independent components extracted through this noise source separation method are: electromagnetic noise of different orders, aerodynamic noise, and switching frequency noise.

Current-induced forces in nanosystems: A hierarchical equations of motion approach

An approach to calculating current-induced forces in charge transport through nanosystems is introduced. Starting from the fully quantum mechanical hierarchical equations of motion formalism, a timescale separation between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom is used to derive a classical Langevin equation of motion for the vibrational dynamics as influenced by current-induced forces, such as the electronic friction. The resulting form of the friction is shown to be equivalent to previously derived expressions. The numerical exactness of the hierarchical equations of motion approach, however, allows the investigation of transport scenarios with strong intrasystem and system-environment interactions. As a demonstration, the electronic friction of three example systems is calculated and analyzed: a single electronic level coupled to one classical vibrational mode, an Anderson impurity model coupled to one classical vibrational mode, and a single electronic level coupled to both a classical and quantum vibrational mode.

Front Cover: Copper(I) and Gold(I) Complexes of Aminofunctionalized Phosphinines: Synthesis and Structural Characterization (Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 6‐7/2023)

The cover picture shows the solid-state structure of an unusual Cu4-rhombus, which is capped by a total of four chlorido ligands. Two aminofunctionalized, aromatic phosphinines coordinate in the classical σ-coordination mode via the phosphorus lone pair to two of the four Cu(I) centers. The other two phosphinines show a rare bridging μ2-coordination mode and span two of the four Cu(I) centers. (DOI: 10.1002/zaac.202200365).

Terahertz ultrasensitive biosensor based on wide-area and intense light-matter interaction supported by QBIC

A quasi-bound state in the continuum (QBIC) has unique attraction in optical switch, nonlinearity, communication, and sensing due to its ultrahigh radiation quality (Q) factor. The QBIC observed in metasurfaces also provides a feasible platform to achieve in-plane strong light-matter interaction, as well as to develop ultrasensitive biosensor. However, the existing metasurface designs are difficult to realize highly efficient excitation and high-performance sensing of QBIC in terahertz (THz) band. Here, we manipulate the interference coupling between electric quadrupole and magnetic dipole by introducing an asymmetry α into the metallic metasurface structure, which excites ultrahigh quality QBIC resonance with Q factor of up to 503. Correspondingly, light field energy constrained by the metasurface and effective sensing area achieved enormous increases of about 400% and 1300%, respectively, which greatly expands the spatial extent and intensity of light-matter interaction. Simulations and experiments show that the proposed QBIC metasurface deliver a high refractive index sensitivity reaching 420 GHz/RIU, where RIU is the refractive index unit, and its direct limit of detection (LoD) for trace homocysteine (Hcy) molecules is 12.5 pmol/μL. Its performance is about 40-times better than that of the classical Dipole mode. This work provides a new avenue to achieve rapid, precise, and nondestructive sensing of trace molecules, and has potential applications in the fields of biochemical reaction monitoring, photocatalysis and photobiomodulation.

Activated carbon supported nickel catalyst for selective CO2 hydrogenation to synthetic methane under contactless induction heating

The use of CO2 methanation in the power-to-gas (PtG) technology chains has received increasing attention in recent years for clean energy and sustainable development. In this work, macroscopic mesoporous nickel catalyst was prepared and evaluated for selective CO2 hydrogenation to CH4 using commercial activated carbon (AC) pellets. Catalyst samples were fully characterized by liquid N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM/TEM). Catalytic performances were investigated under various reaction conditions with both direct induction heating (IH) and conventional indirect Joule heating (JH) modes. Results indicated that by simple thermal treatment, the surface and textural properties of the macroscopic carbon support could be greatly modified by improving the dispersion of metal sites and thus the catalytic performance. The advantages of IH combined with the inherent high thermal and electrical conductivity of the prepared materials could effectively avoid the temperature runaway and enhance the CO2 activation at relatively low reaction temperature. By comparison to the classical indirect JH mode, the resulting macroscopic nickel catalysts showed improving catalytic performances for CO2 methanation under IH mode. The efficient heat management under direct IH mode also prevented coke formation on the catalyst surface which contributes to its high stability as a function of time-on-stream.

Cost-effectiveness of sacituzumab govitecan versus chemotherapy in advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer

PurposeThe ASCENT trial demonstrated the efficacy of sacituzumab govitecan for the treatment of advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The current study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of receiving sacituzumab govitecan compared with standard of care chemotherapy from the United States payer perspective. MethodsA partitioned survival approach was used to project the disease course of advanced or metastatic TNBC. Two survival modes were applied to analyze two groups of patients. The survival data were gathered from the ASCENT trial. Direct medical costs were derived from the data of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Utility data was collected from the published literature. The incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) was the primary outcome that measured the cost-effectiveness of therapy regimen. One-way sensitivity and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were implemented to explore the uncertainty and validate the stability of results. ResultsIn the base-case, the ICUR of sacituzumab govitecan versus chemotherapy is $ 778,771.9/QALY and $ 702,281/QALY for full population group and brain metastatic-negative (BMN) group with the setting of classic survival mode. And in the setting of cure survival mode, the ICUR is $ 506,504.5/QALY for the full population group and $ 274,232.0/QALY for BMN population group. One-way sensitivity analyses revealed that the unit cost of sacituzumab govitecan and body weight were key roles that lower the ICUR value. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses also showed that reducing the unit price of sacituzumab govitecan can improve the likelihood of becoming cost-effective. ConclusionThe cost-effectiveness analysis suggested that from a US payer perspective, sacituzumab govitecan at current price is unlikely to be a preferred option for patients with advanced or metastatic TNBC at a threshold of $ 150,000/QALY.

The Rate Constant - Reaction Free Energy Dependence for the Electron Transfer Reactions in Solutions. The Way to Interpret the Experimental Data Correctly

The relative influences of the reorganization energies of the classical and quantum modes on the maximum position of the rate constant – reaction free energy curve have been studied. In the framework of the continuum electrostatics, the electron transfer reorganization energies in methyltetrahydrofurane solutions for the system biphenylyl – spacer – acceptor were calculated. For different acceptors the solvent reorganization energy varies from 1.0 to 1.1 eV. When added with the rather small reorganization energies for classical intra-molecular modes we obtain 1.13 - 1.34 eV. With account of possible errors this coincides practically with the experimental estimate of the energy at the maximum of the rate–free energy curve DGmax ? -1.2 eV. Hence, we can conclude that the reorganization of quantum modes does not influence substantially the position of this maximum. To the contrary, in a non-polar solvent isooctane were the solvent reorganization does not play any role the reorganization of the quantum intra-reactants modes becomes determinant. These conclusions agree fully with the results of the general theoretical analysis and should be accounted for in the experimental data interpretation.