A Molecular Chameleon for Mapping Subcellular Polarity in an Unfolded Proteome Environment

Environmental polarity is an important factor that drives biomolecular interactions to regulate cell function. Herein, a general method of using the fluorogenic probe NTPAN‐MI is reported to quantify the subcellular polarity change in response to protein unfolding. NTPAN‐MI fluorescence is selectively activated upon labeling unfolded proteins with exposed thiols, thereby reporting on the extent of proteostasis. NTPAN‐MI also reveals the collapse of the host proteome caused by influenza A virus infection. The emission profile of NTPAN‐MI contains information of the local polarity of the unfolded proteome, which can be resolved through spectral phasor analysis. Under stress conditions that disrupt different checkpoints of protein quality control, distinct patterns of dielectric constant distribution in the cytoplasm can be observed. However, in the nucleus, the unfolded proteome was found to experience a more hydrophilic environment across all the stress conditions, indicating the central role of nucleus in the stress response process.     

Study of structural and electronic transport properties of Ce-doped LaMnO3

The structural and electronic transport properties of La_1−x Ce _x MnO₃ (x=0.0–1.0) have been studied. All the samples exhibit orthorhombic crystal symmetry and the unit cell volume decreases with Ce doping. They also make a metal-insulator transition (MIT) and transition temperature increases with increase in Ce concentration up to 50% doping. The system La_0.5Ce_0.5MnO₃ also exhibits MIT instead of charge-ordered state as observed in the hole doped systems of the same composition.     

Vibrationally averaged isotropic dispersion energy coefficients of the parahydrogen dimer

We compare the sum-over-states and coupled cluster linear response formalisms for the determination of imaginary-frequency polarizabilities of H(2). Using both approaches, we compute isotropic dispersion energy coefficients C(n) (n = 6, 8, 10) for H(2)-H(2) molecular pairs over a wide range of H(2) bond lengths. We present vibrationally averaged dispersion energy coefficients for H(2)-H(2), H(2)-D(2), and D(2)-D(2) molecular pairs and examine the coefficients' convergence with respect to basis set.     

Angular momentum partition in heavy ion induced fission and the effects of shells on gamma-ray multiplicities

Gamma-ray multiplicities have been measured following fission of nuclei with a wide range of mass and angular momentum. The average multiplicity reflects the total angular momentum of the fragments, but the observed variation of multiplicity with fragment mass asymmetry is dominated by shell effects. The highest average multiplicity arises fission of the heaviest compound system, produced with the lowest angular moméntum. This behaviour is well described by spin enhancement through statistical excitation.     

Direct observation of H2 binding to a metal oxide surface

Inelastic neutron scattering is used to probe the dynamical response of H2 films adsorbed on MgO(100) as a function of film thickness. Concomitant diffraction measurements and a reduced-dimensionality quantum dynamical model provide insight into the molecule-surface interaction potential. At monolayer thickness, the rotational motion is strongly influenced by the surface, so that the molecules behave like quasiplanar rotors. These findings have a direct impact on understanding how molecular hydrogen binds to the surface of materials used in catalytic and storage applications.     

Two connected inverse spectral transforms

We establish a transformation which connects the potentials of the one-dimensional Dirac and Klein-Gordon operators. This transformation links the solutions of the nonlinear evolution equations solvable by means of the two inverse spectral transforms which use the Dirac and Klein-Gordon direct and inverse spectral problems.