Identical Charge Research Articles

Membrane Fusion Mediated by Cationic Helical Peptide L-MMBen through Phosphatidylglycerol Recruitment.

Membrane fusion is the basis for many biological processes, which holds promise in biomedical applications including the creation of engineered hybrid cells and cell membrane functionalization. Extensive research efforts, including investigations into DNA zippers and carbon nanotubes, have been dedicated to the development of membrane fusion strategies inspired by natural SNARE proteins; nevertheless, achieving a delicate balance between membrane selectivity and high fusion efficiency through precise molecular engineering remains unclear. In our recent study, we successfully designed L-MMBen, a cationic helical antimicrobial peptide that exhibits remarkable antimicrobial efficacy while demonstrating moderate cytotoxicity. In this work, we demonstrate the effective and selective induction of fusion between phosphatidylglycerol (PG)-containing membranes by L-MMBen. By combining biophysical assays at the single-vesicle level with computer simulations at the molecular level, we discovered that L-MMBen can stably adsorb onto the surface of PG-containing membranes, leading to the formation of stalk structures between vesicles and ultimately resulting in membrane fusion. Furthermore, the occurrence of fusion is attributed to the unique ability of L-MMBen to recruit PG lipids and bridge adjacent vesicles. In contrast, its nonhelical counterpart DL-MMBen was found to lack this capability despite possessing an identical positive charge. These findings present an alternative molecule for achieving selective membrane fusion and provide insights for designing helical peptides with diverse applications.

Double blast loadings of clamped square steel plates

This paper presents a combining experimental, numerical, and analytical efforts to elucidate the resultant effect of synchronised double blast loadings on square steel plates. Blast tests were performed to investigate the effect of the distance between the two identical charges upon the large inelastic deformation of fully-clamped steel plates at various standoff distances. Detailed three-dimensional finite element simulations using LS-Dyna were performed to provide insights into the equal blast wave collision and transient response of the ductile plates under the double blast loading. An analytical model was developed to predict the large inelastic deflection of the fully-clamped thin plate under either pulse pressure loading or impulsive loading (an instantaneous zero-period impulse). Experimental results found that splitting a 1kg TNT into 2 × 0.5 kg TNT (with a certain separating distance) would lead to greater permanent inelastic deformation of the ductile thin plates (by up to 19.6%). Both numerical and analytical results were validated against experimental data. Results from the parametric study showed that an optimum charging distance exists for maximised plate deflection under a given TNT mass and standoff distance. The results presented in this work shall be useful for evaluating the hazards of multiple blast loadings or for demolition applications.

On the role of closed timelike curves and confinement structure around Kerr–Newman singularity

In this study, the particle motion around the naked singularity and black hole of Kerr–Newman spacetime is investigated with a special attention on the closed timelike orbits. It is found that both in the naked singularity (NS) and in black hole (BH), the singularity is concealed by causality violating regions, and the Cauchy surface consistently resides inside the inner horizon in nonextremal black holes. For neutral particles and particles with an identical charge to the source, only particles with positive angular momentum are permitted to traverse the closed timelike curves. Conversely, for particles with the opposite charge to the source, the strong Coulomb attraction draws all particles inside the Cauchy surface, allowing them to be present in the closed timelike curves irrespective of their angular momentum. However, in both the NS and BH (both extremal and nonextremal), test particles are confined at a considerable distance from the singular point such that there always exists an empty region surrounding the singularity which prevents particles from interacting with it. The radius of the empty surface that depends on the source parameters and the particle characteristics is investigated with an accurate expression.

Potentiometric Studies on Ion-Transport Selectivity in Charged Gold Nanotubes.

Under ideal conditions, nanotubes with a fixed negative tube-wall charge will reject anions and transport-only cations. Because many proposed nanofluidic devices are optimized in this ideally cation-permselective state, it is important to know the experimental conditions that produce ideal responses. A parameter called Ccrit, the highest salt concentration in a contacting solution that still produces ideal cation permselectivity, is of particular importance. Pioneering potentiometric studies on gold nanotubes were interpreted using an electrostatic model that states that Ccrit should occur when the Debye length in the contacting salt solution becomes equivalent to the tube radius. Since this "double-layer overlap model" (DLOM), treats all same-charge ions as identical point charges, it predicts that all same-charged cations should produce the same Ccrit. However, the effect of cation on Ccrit in gold nanotubes was never investigated. This knowledge gap has become important because recent studies with a polymeric cation-permselective nanopore membrane showed that DLOM failed for every cation studied. To resolve this issue, we conducted potentiometric studies on the effect of salt cation on Ccrit for a 10 nm diameter gold nanotube membrane. Ccrit for all cations studied were, within experimental error, the same and identical, with values predicted by DLOM. The reason DLOM prevailed for the gold nanotubes but failed for the polymeric nanopores stems from the chemical difference between the fixed negative charges of these two membranes.

Unveiling chiral states in the XXZ chain: finite-size scaling probing symmetry-enriched c = 1 conformal field theories

We study the low-energy properties of the one-dimensional spin-1/2 XXZ chain with time-reversal symmetry-breaking pseudo-scalar chiral interaction and propose a phase diagram for the model. In the integrable case of the isotropic Heisenberg model with the chiral interaction, we employ the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz to find “chiralization”, the response of the ground state versus the strength of the pseudo-scalar chiral interaction of a chiral Heisenberg chain. Unlike the magnetization case, the chirality of the ground state remains zero until the transition point corresponding to critical coupling αc = 2J/π with J being the antiferromagnetic spin-exchange interaction. The central-charge c = 1 conformal field theories (CFTs) describe the two phases with zero and finite chirality. We show for this particular case and conjecture more generally for similar phase transitions that the difference between two emergent CFTs with identical central charges lies in the symmetry of their ground state (lightest weight) primary fields, i.e., the two phases are symmetry-enriched CFTs. At finite but small temperatures, the non-chiral Heisenberg phase acquires a finite chirality that scales with the temperature quadratically. We show that the finite-size effect around the transition point probes the transition.

SPH numerical simulation of SC-CO2 directional fracturing and emulsion explosives for rock breaking

SC-CO2 (Supercritical carbon dioxide) directional fracturing is a promising alternative to explosive blasting in complex environments. This study aims to establish an equivalent method for directional fracturing using traditional explosives, promoting broader adoption of this technology. We conduct a comparative experiment analyzing explosive and SC-CO2 rock breaking, developing the SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) numerical model that includes characteristics of the rock-breaking area and dynamic effects of SC-CO2 and explosives. Additionally, we investigate the influence of the directional fracturing device on the energy release coefficient. Proposing a numerical simulation method for SC-CO2 directional fracturing based on equivalence to No.2 rock emulsion explosive, we use the SPH particle algorithm to enhance visualization of the rock-breaking area. Our findings show that the explosive method yields a larger rock-breaking volume than SC-CO2. Under identical explosive charges, the directional cracker model inhibits explosive energy release, with energy decreasing as distance increases. Calculating an inhibition coefficient of 0.45 for the cracker model in terms of explosive granite, the rock-breaking volume index is 0.48, with an average value of 0.465. In mudstone sites, a similar trend is observed with an average energy release inhibition coefficient of 0.44.

Origins of cosmic positrons and electrons

The precision measurements of the cosmic-ray positron and electron fluxes collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station during first ten years of operations are presented. The positron flux exhibits complex energy dependence. It is described by the sum of a term associated with the positrons produced in the collision of cosmic rays, which dominates at low energies, and a new source term, which dominates at high energies and is associated with either dark matter or astrophysical origin. The positron source term also manifest itself in the measured electron spectrum. This is the first indication of the existence of an identical charge symmetric source term both in the positron and in the electron spectra. If confirmed with a higher level of confidence, these observations might suggest the existence of new physics.

Do local governments tax homeowner communities differently?

AbstractThis article investigates whether and how strongly the share of homeowners in a community affects residential property taxation by local governments. Different from renters, homeowners bear the full property tax burden, irrespective of local market conditions, and the tax is more salient to them. “Homeowner communities” may hence oppose high property taxes in order to protect their housing wealth. By merging granular spatial data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census with historical homeownership rates and housing damages during the Second World War as sources of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide empirical evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge significantly lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. This result is invariant to local market conditions, which suggests tax salience is the key mechanism behind this effect. Moreover, we find positive spatial dependence on tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking by local governments.

Complexation of Zr and Hf in fluoride-rich hydrothermal aqueous fluids and its significance for high field strength element fractionation

Zirconium and hafnium behave nearly identically in most geological processes due to their identical nominal ionic charge and similar radius. Some of the most pronounced exceptions from this rule are observed in fluoride-rich aqueous systems, suggesting that aqueous fluoride complexation may be involved in Zr/Hf fractionation. To understand the mechanisms causing this phenomenon, we investigated complexation of Zr4+ and Hf4+ in fluoride-rich (1.0 mol/kg HF) aqueous solutions at 40 MPa and 100–400 °C, using synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy (X-ray absorption near edge structure and extended X-ray absorption fine structure) combined with classical and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. The dominant experimentally observed complexes are [Zr(F,OH)4·2H2O]0 and [Hf(F,OH)4·2H2O]0, respectively. The first coordination shell comprises a distorted octahedron, with fluoride and hydroxide ligands at a similar mean radial distance (1.9–2.0 Å) from the central cation, and H2O ligands at a slightly greater distance (>2.1 Å). With increasing temperature, the H2O ligands move further out, causing first an increasing distortion of the octahedron and subsequently a partial transition to less hydrated complexes as a certain fraction of the H2O molecules move to the second shell at > 3 Å. As a consequence, the radial distance of the F- and OH– anions from the central cation, as well as the overall average radial distance of the first shell decreases due to decreased steric repulsion from the H2O ligands. Both experiments and simulations agree in that Hf forms slightly shorter bonds to its nearest neighbors than Zr. The results suggest two hypotheses for the mechanism of Zr/Hf fractionation during precipitation of minerals from fluoride-rich hydrothermal solutions: 1) The heavy twin (Hf) prefers the lower coordination (shorter bonds) and is thus less likely to enter into the higher coordination found in the solids. This mechanism would be analogous to equilibrium isotope fractionation. 2) The change of Hf into a higher coordination environment (e.g., from solution to solid) is slower because it forms stronger ligand-bonds than Zr. This would be analogous to reactive kinetic isotope fractionation. In either case mass dependent fractionation qualitatively matches the observations but mass independent effects on bond strength may also be significant. Quantitative investigations of these effects are needed and may also shed light on the currently still somewhat enigmatic fractionation behavior of Zr isotopes.

ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN TWO SUPERCONDUCTING CHARGE
 QUBITS

In this paper, we investigated the dynamics of entanglement of two identical charge qubits with Josephson junctions in the case when one of the qubits is exposed to a microwave field in a coherent or thermal state. We have found the exact solution of the quantum time equation of evolution of the system under consideration for the statistical operator in the case of initial separable and entangled states of qubits. The exact solution for the complete statistical operator is used to calculate the qubit entanglement criterion - concurrence. The results of numerical simulation of the time dependence of the concurrence in the case of the coherent field showed that, with a certain choice of model parameters, the system can realize long-lived entangled states. It is also shown that for the thermal state of the field and the entangled initial state of qubits, the qubits retain a certain degree of entanglement during evolution even in the case of very intensive fields. In this case, for any intensities of thermal noise, there is no effect of the sudden death of entanglement.

Post-mortem analysis of the Li-ion battery with charge/discharge deterioration in high- and low-temperature environments

Li-ion batteries have widespread applications. However, their deterioration mechanisms at different temperature conditions remain unclear. In this study, we investigate the effect of high- and low-temperature environments on the charge–discharge performance of an 18650 Li-ion battery having a Li(Ni,Co,Al)O2-family cathode and a graphite anode. After 50 cycles under three temperature conditions, the surfaces of the cathode and anode removed from the disassembled batteries are analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. The crystal and electronic structures of the cathode and anode materials are investigated using X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The anode after 50 cycles at 5 °C is also investigated using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Results of the charge–discharge experiments indicate that, under identical charge–discharge conditions, the deterioration in the battery performance at a low-temperature environment of 5 °C is greater than that at environments of 25 and 80 °C. The post-mortem analyses of the cathode and anode samples of the battery cycled at 5 °C reveal the primary reasons for the decrease in battery capacity. The generation of deposits, including metallic Li, Li2CO3, and LiF, on the anode surface is clarified. During this process, the Li ions available for reinsertion into the cathode decrease. Furthermore, the Ni3+ component is partly reduced to Ni2+ near the surface of the cathode active material, and the reactive oxygen species are generated simultaneously. The reactive oxygen species can promote Li deficiency and surface-electrolyte interface formation. The above understanding of the deterioration mechanism can contribute to developing safer battery usage methods.

Mitigation of Tribocharging in Pharmaceutical Powders using Surface Modified V-Blenders.

The pharmaceutical industry involves handling of powders on a large scale for manufacturing of solid dosage forms such as tablets and capsules constituting about 85% of the dosage forms. During this manufacturing process, powders get electrostatically charged due to numerous particle-particle and particle-equipment wall collisions. Most of the pharmaceutical powders are insulators in nature and they accumulate charge for longer durations making it difficult to dissipate the generated charge.In this study, a surface modified blender has been used to analyze tribocharging in pharmaceutical powders. Thesurface modified blender has been fabricated using two types of materials, an insulator, and a conductor. The conductor or the metal arm induces charge of opposite polarity to that of the charge induced by the insulator arm and the overall charge on the powder decreases during the tumbling motion of the blender. Ibuprofen was used as the model drug and processed in aluminum, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), stainless steel, surface modified aluminum-PVC (Al-PVC) and surface modified stainless steel- PVC (SS-PVC) blender at 20% RH for different blending times such as 2, 10, 20, 30 and 40min.To better understand the tribocharging phenomenon in surface modified V blenders, an experimentally validated computational model was developed using Discrete Element Method (DEM) modeling. Significant reduction (> 50%) in electrostatic charge was observed for Ibuprofen using surface modified blenders in comparison to metal only and insulator only V blenders. Additionally, an identical charging trend was observed between the simulation andexperimental data. CONCLUSION: It was established that careful selection of equipment materials could significantly reduce the electrostatic charging of pharmaceuticalpowdersandDEM model could be a really useful toolin assessing the applicability of the modified V blenders.

Electronic and structural behavior of graphene and azulphene nanoflakes under the influence of two-point charges

We have studied the behavior of graphene and azulphene nanoflakes in the presence of two-point charges. The carbon systems geometry was optimized using the DFT method without symmetry constraint. We studied the coronene (7-ring), two azulphene-coronenes (7-ring) with different symmetries, the superbenzene (19-ring), and three azulphene-superbenzenes (19-ring) with also different symmetries and different combinations of five, six, and seven-member rings exposed to an electric field due to two-point charges. In addition, the induced electric dipole and quadrupole were studied as a function of the charge point magnitude and signs.The Stark-lo-Surdo effect in HOMO, LUMO, and total energies was analyzed. The positive (negative) charges decrease (increase) the HOMO, LUMO, and total electronic energies. The contraction and expansion of molecular systems and the induced charge in the molecular plane due to two identical charges were studied. Due to two identical charges, the null net force does not deform the molecular systems out-off the xy-plane at z = 0. Instead, the deformation occurs in the xy-plane at z = 0, and the positive (negative) identical charges expand (contract) the molecular systems. These systems suffer concavation under the presence of the electric field due to two-point charges with opposite signs. The central ring is closer to the positive charge, while the hydrogen atoms belonging to the edges are closer to the negative charge for curved graphene models. The concavation of azulene-based systems is irregular and very intricate.This work aims to generically describe the influence of a pair of ions on the energetic and structural (electronic and geometric) components of two-dimensional carbon nanosystems with five, six, and seven-member rings. Our studies allow understanding of the general behavior to extrapolate to other bidimensional systems with different charge exposition like ions. Despite the complexity of the performance of the electric field due to point charges to systems with many electrons, we can obtain some general behaviors, although difficult to interpret in some cases.

Controlling the Spin Hall Effect in the Sharp Focus of an Axial Superposition of Two Optical Vortices with Left- and Right-Handed Circular Polarization

We consider sharp focusing of an axial superposition of two optical vortices with identical topological charges, but different amplitudes and circular polarizations of different signs. The ratio of the amplitudes of the two beams is a parameter. When this parameter changes, the polarization state of the superposition changes from linear polarization to right-hand circular polarization. Based on the Richards–Wolf theory, exact expressions are obtained for the longitudinal components of the spin angular momentum (SAM) density and orbital angular momentum (OAM) density at the focus of the considered superposition. It follows from these expressions that the sum of the total longitudinal components of the SAM and OAM is conserved upon focusing, and also that, due to the spin-orbit conversion, the total longitudinal component of the SAM decreases during focusing, while the total longitudinal component of the OAM increases by the same amount. By changing the ratio of the amplitudes of the constituent beams from 1 to 0, one can change the value of the spin-orbit conversion from zero (for linear polarization) to a maximum (for circular polarization). Also, by changing this parameter, one can control the spin Hall effect at the focus, which takes place at the focus of the considered beam. This study can be applied for controlling the rotation velocity of microparticles trapped in the focus.

Fragment Ion Abundance Reveals Information about Structure and Charge Localization in Highly Charged Proteins.

Top-down mass spectrometry (MS) is a versatile tool that has been employed to investigate both protein sequence and structure. Although a variety of different fragmentation methods are available in top-down MS that can potentially yield structural information, quantifying differences between spectra remains challenging. Herein, we show that subtle differences in spectra produced by a variety of fragmentation methods are surprisingly sensitive to protein structure and/or charge localization, even in highly unfolded proteins observed in high charge states. In addition to exposing information about the protein structure, differences in fragmentation also reveal insight into the mechanisms underlying the dissociation methods themselves. The results further reveal that small changes in experimental parameters (such as the addition of methanol instead of acetonitrile) lead to changes in structure that are reflected in statistically reproducible differences in dissociation. Collisional annealing of structurally dissimilar ions in the gas phase eventually leads to dissociation spectra that are indistinguishable, suggesting that structural differences can be erased by sufficient thermal activation. Additional experiments illustrate that identical charge states of the same protein can be distinguished if those produced directly by electrospray are compared to ions manipulated by in vacuo proton-transfer charge reduction. Overall, the results show that subtle differences in both three-dimensional structure and charge-site localization can influence the abundance of fragment ions produced by top-down MS, including dissociation methods not typically thought to be structurally sensitive.

Periodic Coulomb Dynamics of Three Identical Negative Charges in the Field of Six Identical Positive Charges Fixed at the Vertices of Octahedron

Periodic Coulomb Dynamics of Three Identical Negative Charges in the Field of Six Identical Positive Charges Fixed at the Vertices of Octahedron

Emergent N=4 Supersymmetry from N=1.

We discover a four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric field theory that is dual to the N=4 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(2n+1) for each n. The dual theory is constructed through the diagonal gauging of the SU(2n+1) flavor symmetry of three copies of a strongly coupled superconformal field theory (SCFT) of Argyres-Douglas type. We find that this theory flows in the infrared to a strongly coupled N=1 SCFT that lies on the same conformal manifold as N=4 super Yang-Mills with gauge group SU(2n+1). Our construction provides a hint on why certain N=1, 2 SCFTs have identical central charges (a=c).

Surface electric charge decay behavior of Polypropylene (PP) films treated by atmospheric air dielectric barrier discharge

Atmospheric air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is one of the most effective physical techniques for the cold plasma source. It is a promising technique used to modify the surface properties of polymers. This modification leads to improving wetting and adhesion properties, a change in surface roughness and other significant technological features. In recent studies, researchers have showed that DBD plasma exposure can modify the electric properties of insulating materials. In this study, we focused our attention on the influence of DBD plasma treatment on the surface electric charge behavior in polypropylene (PP) thin films. The effect of DBD plasma has been studied as a function of treatment time for two values of applied discharge voltages; 7 and 12 kV. After being exposed to DBD plasma, the samples were charged for 5 seconds in ambient air using a negative triode corona electrode system. The influence of DBD plasma treatment on the surface electric charge behaviour in PP thin films was investigated. The surface characterization of the untreated and treated PP films is performed using surface electric charge decay measurements, for identical charging conditions.

Multi Stimuli-Responsive Aggregation-Induced Emission Active Polymer Platform Based on Tetraphenylethylene-Appended Maleic Anhydride Terpolymers

Multi stimuli-responsive aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active polymers have great application prospects in high-tech innovations. Herein, three types of tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-containing monomers were synthesized and utilized in preparing TPE-appended maleic anhydride terpolymers. After hydrolysis, the produced TPE-appended maleic acid terpolymers have identical linear charge densities but different "primary" structures, which created widely varied microenvironments around the carboxylate and TPE groups. Benefiting from the synergistic interaction of the TPE moiety and the terpolymer conformation change, the TPE-appended maleic acid terpolymers exhibited fluorescence changes in response to multi stimuli, including pH, ionic strength, Ca2+, and bovine serum albumin. On both the "signaling" and the "stimuli acceptor" sides, the multi stimuli-responsive fluorescence behavior was influenced markedly by the terpolymer primary structure. The fundamental insights gained in the present work are important for developing an efficient and versatile stimuli-responsive AIE-active polymer platform for chemo-sensing, bioimaging, and so on.

Discovery of Type II Interlayer Trions.

In terms of interlayer trions, electronic excitations in van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) can be classified into Type I (i.e., two identical charges in the same layer) and Type II (i.e., two identical charges in the different layers). Type I interlayer trions are investigated theoretically and experimentally. By contrast, Type II interlayer trions remain elusive in vdWHs, due to inadequate free charges, unsuitable band alignment, reduced Coulomb interactions, poor interface quality, etc. Here, the first observation of Type II interlayer trions is reported by exploring band alignments and choosing an atomically thin organic-inorganic system-monolayer WSe2 /bilayer pentacene heterostructure (1L+2L HS). Both positive and negative Type II interlayer trions are electrically tuned and observed via PL spectroscopy. In particular, Type II interlayer trions exhibit in-plane anisotropic emission, possibly caused by their unique spatial structure and anisotropic charge interactions, which is highly correlated with the transition dipole moment of pentacene. The results pave the way to develop excitonic devices and all-optical circuits using atomically thin organic-inorganic bilayers.