Destabilization of artificial biomembrane induced by the penetration of tryptophan

The effect of tryptophan on the membrane stability was studied by using three artificial biological membranes including liposome, Langmuir monolayer and solid supported bilayer lipid membrane (s-BLM) as models. All the results indicate that the penetration of tryptophan can destabilize different artificial biological membranes. The diameter of liposome and the leakage of calcein from liposome increased with the increase of tryptophan concentration because the penetration of tryptophan was beneficial for dehydrating the polar head groups of lipids and the formation of fusion intermediates. π-A isotherms of lecithin on the subphase of tryptophan solution further confirm that tryptophan can penetrate into lipid monolayer and reduce the stability of lipid monolayer. When the concentration of tryptophan increased from 0 to 2 × 10⁻³ mol L⁻¹, the limiting molecular area of lecithin increased from 110.5 to 138.5 Å², but the collapse pressure of the monolayer decreased from 47.6 to 42.3 mN m⁻¹, indicating the destabilization of lipid monolayer caused by the penetration of tryptophan. The resistance spectra of s-BLM demonstrate that the existence of tryptophan leads to the formation of some defects in s-BLM and the destabilization of s-BLM. The values of electron-transfer resistance and double layer capacitance respectively decreased from 5.765 × 10⁶ Ω and 3.573 × 10⁻⁸ F to 1.391 × 10⁶ Ω and 3.340 × 10⁻⁸ F when the concentration of tryptophan increased from 0 to 2 × 10⁻³ mol L⁻¹. Correspondingly, the breakdown voltage of s-BLM decreased from 2.51 to 1.72 V.     

Relationship Between the Polymer Structures and Destabilization of Polymer‐Containing Water‐in‐Oil Emulsions

The viscous properties, scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), and water/oil interfacial tension (IFT) of partially hydrolyzed polyacryamide (HPAM) and hydrophobically associating hydrolyzed polyacryamides modified with N‐dodecylacrylamide were studied with the objective of investigating the influence on destabilization of emulsions. As expected, the copolymers exhibit significant viscosity enhancing capacity and three‐dimensional network structures due to intermolecular hydrophobic associations, and also present high interfacial activities as the IFT decrease with increasing polymer concentration. As a result, the existences of copolymers increased both the viscosity of emulsions and the intensity of interfacial film, in which case slow down the diffusion of demulsifier molecules and enhance the stability of emulsions, finally, the separation of water from oil becomes more difficult.     

Interaction of cubosomes with plasma components resulting in the destabilization of cubosomes in plasma

Cubosomes are novel dispersed nanoparticles with bicontinuous cubic phases of monoolein in their interior. We investigated their disintegration process in plasma by in vitro and in vivo studies. Cubosomes were incubated with whole plasma or plasma components such as HDL, LDL, and albumin. The lypolysis study indicated lipolytic activity of whole plasma towards cubosomes. Gel filtration chromatography revealed that HDL, LDL and albumin interacted with cubosomes. HDL affected cubosomes’ integrity and gave rise to smaller particles which contained the components of both cubosomes and HDL. Upon incubation with LDL, cubosomes fused with LDL. Albumin was shown to take up monoolein out of the particles. Cubosomes were disintegrated by whole plasma as a result of the interaction with plasma components. It was concluded that in vivo observation of a long circulation time of a hydrophobic substance in cubosomes was due to the sustained behavior of cubosome remnant particles.     

Temperature gradient driven Alfvén instability producing inward energy flux in stellarators

Destabilizing influence of plasma inhomogeneity on Alfvén eigenmodes in stellarators is considered. It is found that the diamagnetic frequency can strongly increase due to the resonance interaction of particles and Alfvén eigenmodes. This occurs when the particle resonance velocity exceeds the thermal velocity, in which case the role of superthermal particles enlarges. Then Alfvén eigenmodes can be destabilized even in the absence of the energetic ion population. It is shown that in the case of the temperature distribution with a large gradient at the periphery, the destabilized mode can channel the energy from the peripheral plasma region to the inner region. A stability analysis employing a model temperature profile of the ions was carried out for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator. It indicates that the considered mechanism could lead to an Alfvén instability accompanied with the inward energy flux in the first W7-X experiments where long-lasting high-frequency oscillations were observed.     

Simulating orthokinetic heterocoagulation and cluster growth in destabilizing suspensions

Using direct numerical simulation, we investigate the coagulation behavior of non-Brownian colloidal particles as exemplified by Al₂O₃ particles. This yields the so-called capture efficiency, for which we give an analytical expression, as well as other time-dependent variables such as the cluster growth rate. Instead of neglecting or strongly approximating the hydrodynamic interactions between particles, we include hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic interactions in a Stokesian dynamics approach and a comprehensive modeling of the interparticle forces. The resulting parallelized simulation framework enables us to investigate the dynamics of polydisperse particle systems composed of several hundred particles at the same high level of modeling we used for a close investigation of the coagulation behavior of two unequal particles in shear flow. Appropriate cluster detection yields all the information about large destabilizing systems, which is needed for models used in flow-sheet simulations. After non-dimensionalization, the results can be generalized and applied to other systems tending to secondary coagulation.     

Destabilizing Heegaard splittings of knot exteriors

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for Heegaard splittings of knot exteriors to admit destabilizations. As an application, we show the following: let K₁ and K₂ be a pair of knots which is introduced by Morimoto as an example giving degeneration of tunnel number under connected sum. The Heegaard splitting of the exterior of K₁#K₂ derived from certain minimal unknotting tunnel systems of K₁ and K₂ is stabilized.     

Alloying Effect Study on Thermodynamic Stability of MgH2 by First-principles Calculation

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory were performed to study the effect of alloying on the thermodynamic stability of MgH₂ hydride (rutile and fluorite structures) with transitional metals (TM=Sc, Ti, Y) and group IIA elements (M=Ca, Sr, Ba). The results indicate that fluorite structure of these hydrides are more stable than its relative rutile structure at low alloying content (less 20%), structural destabilization of MgH₂ appears in the alloying cases of Ti, Sr and Ba respectively. The structure-transition point from rutile structure to fluorite structure is at around 20% for MgH₂-TM, and about 40% for MgH₂-M. The formation enthalpy of fluorite Mg_0.5Ba_0.52 is about 0.3 eV and higher than that of fluorite MgH₂, indicating that its hydrogen-desorption temperature at atmospheric pressure will be much lower than that of pure MgH₂. Good consistency between experimental and calculated data suggests that above-adopted method is useful to predict structural transition and properties of MgH₂ based hydrides for hydrogen storage.     

COMPARISON OF THE LONG-TIME BEHAVIOR OF LINEAR ITO AND STRATONOVICH PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

In this paper, we point out the different long-time behavior of stochastic partial differential equations when one considers the stochastic term in the Ito or Stratonovich sense. In particular, we prove that the Stratonovich interpretation may not produce modification in the exponential stability of the deterministic model for a wide range of stochastic perturbations, while Ito's one can give different results. In fact, some stabilization or destabilization effect can be obtained.     

多级多层复合滑坡工程病害的试验研究

张家坪滑坡具有多级多层的复杂滑体结构,本文选取最典型的断面开展了大型地质力学模型试验,模拟了边坡的开挖过程,并采用均匀毛细浸润技术研究雨水作用下的坡体稳定性,通过有无支挡的两阶段试验对比,分析了多级多层复合滑坡的变形失稳机制和工程病害,以及相应抗滑支挡结构的加固效果。     

A diffusing wave spectroscopy study of the dynamics of interactions between high methoxyl pectin and sodium caseinate emulsions during acidification

A non-invasive technique, diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS), and traditional dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used to study the interactions of high methoxyl pectin (HMP) with sodium caseinate-stabilized emulsion droplets. At pH 6.8, the droplet size measured by DLS did not change as a function of HMP concentration (up to 0.3%). However, the droplet diameter measured by DWS kept relatively constant up to 0.07% HMP after which it showed drastic increases. The turbidity parameter 1/l* decreased with HMP concentration and levelled off at 0.07% HMP, indicating that the system underwent reorganization and reached equilibrium at 0.07% HMP. During acidification at pH 5.4, right before the pH of aggregation of control emulsions, all emulsions containing 0.05–0.2% HMP showed an increase of 1/l*. This increase indicated the interaction of HMP with sodium caseinate at the interface. Emulsions containing 0.05 and 0.1% HMP also showed destabilization, and the pH of destabilization depended on the concentration of HMP. Sufficient amounts of HMP (0.2%) stabilized the caseinate-coated oil droplets, and the mean square displacement slope was close to 1 throughout, indicating free diffusion of emulsion droplets.