Mobility Distribution Research Articles

Following Structural Changes by Thermal Denaturation Using Trapped Ion Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometry.

The behavior of biomolecules as a function of the solution temperature is often crucial to assessing their biological activity and function. While heat-induced changes of biomolecules are traditionally monitored using optical spectroscopy methods, their conformational changes and unfolding transitions remain challenging to interpret. In the present work, the structural transitions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in native conditions (100 mM aqueous ammonium acetate) were investigated as a function of the starting solution temperature (T ∼ 23-70 °C) using a temperature-controlled nanoelectrospray ionization source (nESI) coupled to a trapped ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (TIMS-MS) instrument. The charge state distribution of the monomeric BSA changed from a native-like, narrow charge state ([M + 12H]12+ to [M + 16H]16+ at ∼23 °C) and narrow mobility distribution toward an unfolded-like, broad charge state (up to [M + 46H]46+ at ∼70 °C) and broad mobility distribution. Inspection of the average charge state and collision cross section (CCS) distribution suggested a two-state unfolding transition with a melting temperature Tm ∼ 56 ± 1 °C; however, the inspection of the CCS profiles at the charge state level as a function of the solution temperature showcases at least six structural transitions (T1-T7). If the starting solution concentration is slightly increased (from 2 to 25 μM), this method can detect nonspecific BSA dimers and trimers which dissociate early (Td ∼ 34 ± 1 °C) and may disturb the melting curve of the BSA monomer. In a single experiment, this technology provides a detailed view of the solution, protein structural landscape (mobility vs solution temperature vs relative intensity for each charge state).

A numerical study of bipolar charging and neutralization of ultrafine particles with uniformly generated heterogeneous ions

Bipolar charging and neutralization of aerosol particles below 100 nm in a laminar flow tube with a uniform generation rate of mass- and mobility-distributed heterogeneous ions has been studied theoretically, and compared to the case of homogeneous, monodisperse ions. Two types of homogeneous ions have been examined: type-I, having the arithmetic mean mass and mobility of the heterogeneous ions; and type-II, having the same mean mobility but with a mass chosen so as to yield the same mean ion-to-aerosol attachment rate coefficients as the heterogeneous ions. By definition, heterogeneous and homogeneous-II ions lead to the same stationary charge distribution, but homogeneous-I ions lead to a different one. If the bipolar charger operates under non-stationary conditions, each ion type produces a different aerosol charge distribution. Using five different sets of bipolar heterogeneous ion populations, with mobility (and in some cases, mass) distributions measured by different research groups, it has been found that the two types of homogeneous ions, I and II, reproduce with reasonable accuracy the charge distributions yielded by the heterogeneous ions, except for multiply-charged particles in a few specific cases. For the particular charger studied, the stationary charge distribution is attained, within a ±5% error, when the dimensionless number βNin2τ/nin introduced in Ibarra, Rodríguez-Maroto, and Alonso (2020) is larger than about 2000. Other charger geometries may lead to a different threshold value for this dimensionless number.

Mobilization and Cellular Distribution of Phosphate in the Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum.

Unicellular organisms that live in marine environments must cope with considerable fluctuations in the availability of inorganic phosphate (Pi). Here, we investigated the extracellular Pi concentration-dependent expression, as well as the intracellular or extracellular localization, of phosphatases and phosphate transporters of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. We identified Pi-regulated plasma membrane-localized, ER-localized, and secreted phosphatases, in addition to plasma membrane-localized, vacuolar membrane-localized, and plastid-surrounding membrane-localized phosphate transporters that were also regulated in a Pi concentration-dependent manner. These studies not only add further knowledge to already existing transcriptomic data, but also highlight the capacity of the diatom to distribute Pi intracellularly and to mobilize Pi from extracellular and intracellular resources.

Landscape-geochemical preconditions and regularities of toxic elements distribution on “Oleshkivski pisky” military training site territory

It is characterized main features of landscape-geochemical structure of “Oleshkivski pisky” military range. It is analysed special aspects of military training activity influence on the of soils and plants contamination level with heavy metals. Sampling scheme for studying of heavy metals migration features, with respect to landscape structure of the territory is substantiated. Special features of heavy metals distribution in soils at different distances from firing positions within military range have been determined. It is investigated distribution and accumulation of I and II danger class heavy metals in soil and vegetational cover of the military training site. The regularities of spatial distribution of mobile and potentially accessible forms of heavy metals are determined. It was defined that content of heavy metals in three movable forms are represented in the following geochemical units, mg/kg: in acid soluble form – Mn > Zn > Pb > Cu > V > Ni > Co > Cd; in exchangeable form – Mn > Zn > Pb > V > Co = Ni > Cu > Cd; in water soluble form – Mn > Zn > Pb = V > Co > Ni > Cd > Cu.
 It is presented studies results on accumulation intensity and the nature of distribution of gross and mobile heavy metals forms in soil space and on their migration in the soil profile. The dominant technogenic geochemical unit was extracted: Cd > Hg > Pb > Cu > Zn > Ni > V > Co > Mn. Landscapes with maximum polyelement contamination have been identified. Landscape-geochemical map of “Oleshkivski pisky” military training site territory was drawn, relying on own field and experimental materials. Migration dynamics of Ni, Zn, Cu, V, Pb and other heavy metals mobile forms in the soil profile of soddy underdeveloped sandy soil during 2015–2019 under impact contamination levels has been determinated. The peculiarities of heavy metals mobile forms absorption in typical plant species of the military range territory during 2015–2019 vegetation periods were clarified.

Predictable patterns in stacking and distribution of channelized fluvial sand bodies linked to channel mobility and avulsion processes

Abstract Despite the importance of channel avulsion in constructing fluvial stratigraphy, it is unclear how contrasting avulsion processes are reflected in stratigraphic-stacking patterns of channelized fluvial sand bodies, as a proxy for how river depocenters shifted in time and space. Using an integrated, geospatially referenced, three-dimensional data set that includes outcrop, core, and lidar data, we identify, for the first time in an outcrop study, a predictive relationship between channelized sand body architecture, paleochannel mobility, and stratigraphic-stacking pattern. Single-story sand bodies tend to occur in vertically stacked clusters that are capped by a multilateral sand body, indicating an upward change from a fixed-channel system to a mobile-channel system in each cluster. Vertical sand body stacking in the clusters implies reoccupation of abandoned channels after “local” avulsion. Reoccupational avulsion may reflect channel confinement, location downstream of a nodal avulsion point that maintained its position during development of the sand body cluster, and/or aggradation and progradation of a backwater-mediated channel downstream of a nodal avulsion point. Sand body clusters and additional multilateral sand bodies are laterally offset or isolated from each other, implying compensational stacking due to “regional” switching of a nodal avulsion point to a new, topographically lower site on the floodplain. The predictive links between avulsion mechanisms, channel mobility, and resultant sand body distributions and stacking patterns shown in our findings have important implications for exploring and interpreting spatiotemporal patterns of stratigraphic organization in alluvial basins.

Spread and dynamics of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy: Effects of emergency containment measures

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy prompted drastic measures for transmission containment. We examine the effects of these interventions, based on modeling of the unfolding epidemic. We test modeling options of the spatially explicit type, suggested by the wave of infections spreading from the initial foci to the rest of Italy. We estimate parameters of a metacommunity Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR)-like transmission model that includes a network of 107 provinces connected by mobility at high resolution, and the critical contribution of presymptomatic and asymptomatic transmission. We estimate a generalized reproduction number ([Formula: see text] = 3.60 [3.49 to 3.84]), the spectral radius of a suitable next-generation matrix that measures the potential spread in the absence of containment interventions. The model includes the implementation of progressive restrictions after the first case confirmed in Italy (February 21, 2020) and runs until March 25, 2020. We account for uncertainty in epidemiological reporting, and time dependence of human mobility matrices and awareness-dependent exposure probabilities. We draw scenarios of different containment measures and their impact. Results suggest that the sequence of restrictions posed to mobility and human-to-human interactions have reduced transmission by 45% (42 to 49%). Averted hospitalizations are measured by running scenarios obtained by selectively relaxing the imposed restrictions and total about 200,000 individuals (as of March 25, 2020). Although a number of assumptions need to be reexamined, like age structure in social mixing patterns and in the distribution of mobility, hospitalization, and fatality, we conclude that verifiable evidence exists to support the planning of emergency measures.

Thermal properties and space charge behavior of thermally aged polypropylene/elastomer blends nanocomposite

Polypropylene (PP)-based composites including PP/thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) elastomer blends and PP/TPO-based nanocomposite are rather promising insulation materials for HVDC cables. Aging is an inevitable issue in practical operation and needs to be investigated thoroughly. In this paper, PP/TPO blends and PP/TPO/ZnO nanocomposite were prepared and thermally aged at 130 °C for various periods (28 days at longest). The micro-morphology, thermal properties and high-temperature space charge behavior were investigated. The results show that PP and TPO still exhibited excellent compatibility without phase separation after thermally aging. The crystallinity was not influenced after thermally aging, but a new endothermic peak at about 140 °C appeared in the melting process of thermally aged composites. Space charges accumulated in the two thermally aged composites, but dissipated slowly in PP/TPO, while dissipated rapidly first and then reduced in PP/TPO/ZnO nanocomposite. The calculated apparent charge mobility and trap level distribution based on space charge dissipation show that deep traps increased in aged PP/TPO, but decreased in aged PP/TPO/ZnO nanocomposite, which may be correlated with the chemical variation of thermally aged polymer matrix. The work may give a reference on the aging research of PP-based composite material for recyclable HVDC cable insulation.

Quality of Service provisioning in Named Data Networking via PIT entry reservation and PIT replacement policy

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a promising candidate of Future Internet Architecture (FIA) designed to solve many long-standing issues in current IP architecture such as security, mobility, and content distribution inefficiency. Pending Interest Table (PIT) is one of the essential building blocks of NDN, which is used in the successful delivery of data packets to the requesters. It helps to achieve intrinsic advantages such as anonymity, interest aggregation, multi-cast delivery, multi-path forwarding, and security. NFD (NDN Forwarding Daemon) currently does not constrain the size of PIT. Over-allocation of PIT does not contribute to network performance improvement rather helps in performance degradation. Therefore, there is a need to restrict PIT size. However, in the presence of bursty traffic, PIT may turn out to be full, and new incoming Interest packets may get dropped. In this case, NDN faces a new challenge to achieve Quality of Service (QoS) under bursty traffic. This paper presents two simple schemes to solve this problem via PIT entry reservation and PIT entry replacement policy. We present analytical models of both the schemes using Continuous Time Markov Chain (CTMC). We derive blocking and forced termination probability of Interest packets as performance metrics. The accuracy of the models is validated through simulation results.

Experimental investigation on T2 cutoffs of tight sandstones: Comparisons between outcrop and reservoir cores

T2 cutoff is a key representative parameter of rock pore structure, which can reflect the degree of mobile fluid as a function of variable water saturation controlled by the extent of centrifuging. However, few studies of T2 cutoff have been done on tight sandstones. In this study, residual fluid of samples after a series of centrifuges were scanned by NMR to determine T2 cutoffs (the relaxation time separating mobile from immobile water) and the extent of mobile fluid as a function of variable water saturation controlled by the extent of centrifuging. Results indicate that all reservoir cores exhibit bimodal NMR T2 distributions, while outcrop cores mainly show unimodal NMR T2 distributions. Tight sandstones showlittle or no mobile fluid controlled by pore throats with radii ≥1 μm, including outcrops and reservoir samples. In conclusion, T2 cutoffs of cores with bimodal NMR T2 distributions and the ones with unimodal NMR T2 distributions were obtained,respectively,at 418 psi and 208 psi, while the former cores exhibit larger T2 cutoffs than the later ones. The critical mobile pore radius for outcrop samples exhibiting a unimodal spectral NMR T2 distribution is 100 nm, whereas the critical pore radius of 50 nm is identified for reservoir samples which display a bimodal T2 distribution. T2gm (The geometric means of T2 fluid distribution at 100% saturation) may propagate error when applying the Schlumberger Doll Research (SDR) model to tight sandstones, whereas T2wa (the weighted average NMR T2 values for the mobile fluid distribution) shows promise as a parameter to predict pore connectivity.

On the Interaction of Charging-Aware Mobility and Wireless Capacity

Today's mobile battery-powered communication devices require that users access chargers via wired and, recently, wireless recharging facilities. For a device departing from a location with a given energy “budget”, a plausible strategy is to seek a charger location once the energy is exhausted. We present a model of mobile nodes that captures the paths followed by the nodes with depleted energy seeking, possibly via a detour, to reach a charger. The derived location-dependent mobile node density distribution is used to express the location-dependent congestion of a wireless network whose capacity is used by the mobile nodes. The boundaries, and the relative placement of the charger, create intriguing discontinuities in the probability density function of the nodes across space. We find that chargers are not always “hotspots” in terms of node density, and that the energy budget of the nodes at the beginning of their trip impacts that density and determines the hotspot. Moreover, upon energy depletion, to detour from one's path or not, results in a distinctly different relative impact of the charger placement on the ability of nodes to sustain communication, depending, again on the energy budget the nodes have upon departure from a waypoint.

Defect Engineering in Titanium-Based Oxides for Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices

Defect engineering involves the manipulation of the type, concentration, mobility or spatial distribution of defects within crystalline structures and can play a pivotal role in transition metal oxides in terms of optimizing electronic structure, conductivity, surface properties and mass ion transport behaviors. And of the various transition metal oxides, titanium-based oxides have been keenly investigated due to their extensive application in electrochemical storage devices in which the atomic-scale modification of titanium-based oxides involving defect engineering has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years through the manipulation of the type, concentration, spatial distribution and mobility of defects. As a result, this review will present recent advancements in defect-engineered titanium-based oxides, including defect formation mechanisms, fabrication strategies, characterization techniques, density functional theory calculations and applications in energy conversion and storage devices. In addition, this review will highlight trends and challenges to guide the future research into more efficient electrochemical storage devices. This work reviews the recent advances in defect-engineered Ti-based oxides, including the mechanism of defect formation, fabrication strategies, the characterization techniques, density functional theory calculations and the applications in energy conversion and storage.

Numerical simulation of the effect of backpressure on the discharge characteristics of a Hall effect thruster

The backpressure in the ground vacuum chamber significantly influences the discharge characteristics and performance of Hall effect thrusters (HETs). In this study, the propellant supplied from the anode and the propellant ingested from the background are treated as two separate components. Their ionization and acceleration processes are then studied numerically with a Particle-in-cell discharge model. It is found that the background propellant is mainly ionized near the outlet of the channel, thus affecting the local electron mobility and potential distribution inside and outside the channel. This results in an improvement in the ionization and acceleration of the anode propellant, an enhancement in the utilization of the propellant, and a reduction in the divergence of the ion beam. Consequently, the performance of the HETs is augmented. In particular, the increment in the thrust caused by the introduction of backpressure is not only due to the ionization and acceleration of the background propellant but also due to the improvement in the anode propellant discharge.

Determination of the optimum amount of iodine in electrophoretic deposition of hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles

In this research, the hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles were deposited on sandblasted titanium by electrophoretic deposition method. In this case, isopropanol-acetone suspension with 50/50 ratio was used by using iodine as a dispersant. The suspensions were prepared with various concentrations of iodine (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 g/L). Furthermore, the pH of suspension, the electrical conductivity of the suspension mediums, and the zeta potential, mobility, and particle size distribution of HA nanoparticles were measured in suspensions. In the next step, the optimum content of iodine was determined to provide a sustainable suspension. Then, HA coating was deposited on sandblasted titanium surface. The current density during electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and deposition rate in different voltages were investigated. The microstructure and morphology of the sediments were examined by using FE-SEM and AFM. Finally, the structure and phase composition of the coatings were analyzed by using XRD before and after sintering. Furthermore, the adhesion strength of the coating to the substrate was measured. The results show that 0.6-g/L iodine prepared a stable suspension and the effect of current density and potential on the deposition weight is determined. In additional, the results show a finer and narrower particle size distribution can be observed. Also, adhesion strength of the coatings to the sandblasted titanium surface is about 11 MPa.

Characterization and differential retention of Q beta bacteriophage virus-like particles using cyclical electrical field-flow fractionation and asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are widely used in medicine, but can be difficult to characterize and isolate from aggregates. In this research, primarily cyclical electrical field-flow fractionation (CyElFFF) coupled with multi-angle light scattering (MALS), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) detectors, was used for the first time to perform size and electrical characterization of three different types of Q beta bacteriophage virus-like particles (VLPs): a blank Q beta bacteriophage which is denoted as VLP and two conjugated ones with different peptides. The CyElFFF results were verified with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with MALS was also applied using conditions similar to those used in the CyElFFF experiments, and the results of the two techniques were compared to each other. Using these techniques, the size and electrophoretic characteristics of the fractionated VLPs in CyElFFF were obtained. The results indicate that CyElFFF can be used to obtain a clear distribution of electrophoretic mobilities for each type of VLP. Accordingly, CyElFFF was able to differentially retain and isolate VLPs with high surface electric charge/electrophoretic mobility from the ones with low electric charge/electrophoretic mobility. Regarding the size characterization, the size distribution of the eluted VLPs was obtained using both techniques. CyElFFF was able to identify subpopulations that did not appear in the AF4 results by generating a shoulder peak, whereas AF4 produced a single peak. Different size characteristics of the VLPs appearing in the shoulder peak and the main peak indicate that CyElFFF was able to isolate aggregated VLPs from the monomers partially. Graphical abstract.

A Data-Driven Sequential Localization Framework for Big Telco Data

The proliferation of telco networks and mobile terminals brings the accumulation of tremendous amounts of measure report(MR) data at a rapid pace. The MR data is generated by mobile objects while connecting to data services and is stored in backend data centers. To geo-tag or localize such MR data is believed to have a profound effect on the analytics and optimizations of telco and traffic networks. However, MR records are of noisy and partial observations regarding to mobile objects' geo-locations and hence pose challenges to accurate telco data localization. There have been quite a few attempts. Single-point localization methods map a MR record to a location, but come out with limited accuracies due to the ignorance of spatiotemporal coherence of successive MR records. Recent efforts on sequential localization techniques alleviate this by mapping a sequence of MR records to a trajectory. However, existing solutions are often with assumptions on specific models, e.g., mobility and signal strength distributions, or priori knowledge on topology space, e.g., road networks, limiting the deployment in practice. To this end, we propose a data-driven framework to tackle the challenges in sequential telco localization. We solely use raw MR records and a public third-party GPS dataset for the learning of the correlations between mobile objects' locations and MR records, requiring no model assumptions and priori knowledge. To handle the data-intensive workloads during the learning process, we use materialized views for efficient online localization and light-weighted indexing techniques for periodical parameters tuning, in order to improve the efficiency and scalability. Results on real data show that our solution achieves 58.8 percent improvement in median localization errors compared with state-of-art sequential localization techniques that require hypothesis models and priori knowledge, making our solution superior in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and employability.

Routing With Traffic Awareness and Link Preference in Internet of Vehicles

Considering the high mobility and uneven distribution of vehicles, an efficient routing protocol should avoid that the sent packets are forwarded within road segments with ultra-low density or serious data congestion in vehicular networks. To this end, in this paper, we propose a Traffic aware and Link Quality sensitive Routing Protocol (TLRP) for urban Internet of Vehicles (IoV). First, we design a novel routing metric, i.e., Link Transmission Quality (LTQ), to account for the impact of the number, quality and relative positions of communication links along a routing path on the network performance. Then, to adapt to the dynamic characteristics of IoV, a road weight evaluation scheme is presented to assess each road segment using the real-time traffic and link information quantified by the LTQ. Next, the path with the lowest aggregated weight is selected as the routing candidate. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our proposed protocol achieves significant performance improvements compared to the state-of-the-art protocol MM-GPSR, the typical junction-based scheme E-GyTAR, and the classic connectivity-based routing iCAR, in terms of packet delivery ratio and average transmission delay.

Economic and business cycles with time varying in India: evidence from ICT sectors

The purposes of this paper are two main sections. The former is to study the relationship between Indian ICT industries and GDP by applying Bayesian inference. Yearly predominant indexes collected during 2000 to 2015, including Indian GDP, fixed phone usages, mobile phone distributions, internet servers, and broadband suppliers are analysed by employing the Markov-switching model (MS-model) and Bayesian vector autoregressive model (BVAR). The latter is the time-varying parametric VAR model with stochastic volatilities (TVP-VAR). With Bayes statistics, this time-varying analysis can more clearly provide the extended perception to the underlying flexible structure in the economy. Additionally, the Bayesian regression model is used to investigate the ICT multiplier related to Indian economic growth. Empirically, results indicate IT sectors are now becoming the importance of Indian economic expansion, compared with telecommunication sectors. The ICT multiplier also confirms high-technological industrial zones should be systematically enhanced, especially, researches and developments in cyberspace.

Quantification of the Mean and Distribution of Hemoglobin Content in Normal Human Blood Using Cell Tracking Velocimetry.

The current clinical method for detecting anemia focuses on measuring the concentration of hemoglobin (Hb) in blood. However, recent developments in particle tracking algorithms and the understanding of the relationship between Hb and magnetism has enabled the quantitative measurement of the Hb content in a single red blood cell, RBC, based on magnetophoretic mobility. To further explore this relationship, 22 human blood samples obtained from 17 healthy volunteers were analyzed by the cell tracking velocimetry system, and the calculated Hb concentration from these measurements was compared to the values measured by UV-visible spectrophotometry, the standard method for measuring Hb in clinical laboratories. The results show close correlations between the mean of the spectrophotometric and magnetophoretic methods; however, single cell analysis with the magnetophoretic mobility method allows further elucidation of the distribution of Hb concentration within RBCs from a donor sample to be determined. Histograms of these magnetophoretic mobility distributions indicate that the fraction of RBCs that are below the bulk Hb concentration that defines anemia varies not only from donor to donor but also in the same donor over time. Consistent with a variable fraction below the anemic Hb concentration, the distribution around the mean has a large range. Previous studies have indicated that RBCs lose Hb during ex vivo storage; however, it is not known if this variability in the distribution of Hb content is a function of the age of the RBCs in a donor, suggesting a variable rate in RBC production between donors, or variability in available iron at the time of RBC formation. We suggest our cell tracking velocimetry system can reveal more information regarding this matter.

Characterization of Diblock Copolymers by Capillary Electrophoresis: From Electrophoretic Mobility Distribution to Distribution of Composition

Free solution capillary-electrophoresis (CE) is a powerful separation technique for the characterization of diblock copolymers. In this work, four series of double-hydrophilic anionic and cationic block copolymers, namely, poly(acrylamide)-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PAM-b-PAA), poly(acrylamide)-block-poly((3-acrylamidopropyl)trimethylammonium chloride) (PAM-b-PAPTAC), poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PEO-b-PAA) and poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate)-block-poly(acrylic acid) (P(PEGA)-b-PAA), were synthesized by reversible additionfragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and characterized by CE. The electrophoretic mobility distributions of the copolymers were transformed into distributions of composition ratio by introducing a retardation parameter, Xexp,, that represents the hydrodynamic drag retardation due to the neutral block of the copolymer. A linear correlation between Xexp and the ratio of the degrees of polymerization of each blocks was experimentally established and was consistent with the model of electrophoretic mobility of composite macromolecules with hydrodynamic coupling. Finally, the comparison of the distributions between the different copolymer families was significantly improved by considering the distributions in composition ratio compared to the electrophoretic mobility distributions, since it takes into account the differences in solvation, expansion and drag force according to the chemical nature of the blocks.

Determination of the Mean Mobility and Estimation of the Mobility Distribution of Aerosols with a Concentric-Cylindrical Electrostatic Precipitator

Concentric-cylindrical electrical condensers, commonly employed in laboratory research work to precipitate charged aerosol particles (electrostatic precipitator, ESP), can also be used to measure the mean electric mobility of the aerosol and to estimate its mobility distribution. A theoretical research has been carried out to describe the performance of an ESP and its application to the determination of aerosol mobility distribution. Two main equations have been derived: the transfer function, i.e. the probability that a particle of a given mobility is transmitted through the ESP; and, from it, the basic equation describing the performance of the precipitator, the penetration–voltage equation. These equations are valid for whatever shape of the flow velocity profile. MonteCarlo simulations have been carried out to compute the penetration–voltage curve and found to be in excellent agreement with the analytical equations. The parameters (geometric mean and standard deviation) of aerosols with lognormal mobility distributions can be estimated with certain accuracy as long as the distribution width is not too large. Finally, the effect of Brownian diffusion (not taken into account in the theoretical model) has been considered in the MonteCarlo simulations and found to be negligible provided that proper ESP geometric dimensions and aerosol flow rate are used.