Photocycles of Channelrhodopsin-2

Recent developments have used light-activated channels or transporters to modulate neuronal activity. One such genetically-encoded modulator of activity, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), depolarizes neurons in response to blue light. In this work, we first conducted electrophysiological studies of the photokinetics of hippocampal cells expressing ChR2, for various light stimulations. These and other experimental results were then used for systematic investigation of the previously proposed three-state and four-state models of the ChR2 photocycle. We show the limitations of the previously suggested three-state models and identify a four-state model that accurately follows the ChR2 photocurrents. We find that ChR2 currents decay biexponentially, a fact that can be explained by the four-state model. The model is composed of two closed (C1 and C2) and two open (O1 and O2) states, and our simulation results suggest that they might represent the dark-adapted (C1-O1) and light-adapted (C2-O2) branches. The crucial insight provided by the analysis of the new model is that it reveals an adaptation mechanism of the ChR2 molecule. Hence very simple organisms expressing ChR2 can use this form of light adaptation.     

Adsorption isotherms and Sips models of nitrogen,methane, ethane,and propane on commercial activated carbons and polyvinylidene chloride

In this paper we present the measured isotherms of nitrogen, methane, ethane, and propane on three carbons: Norit RB2, Chemviron AP 4-60, and highly activated Saran. The measurements are taken at temperatures between 300 and 400 K, in 20 K steps. The measured data is fitted to the Sips adsorption model, where the Sips parameters are determined by a linearization method. The Sips parameters are further adjusted to realize a logic dependence on temperature and the parameter characteristics are discussed. Subsequently, the Sips model is modified to incorporate the temperature dependence. Including the temperature dependence results in a slightly higher error relative to the experimental results (typically 10 % as compared to 6 %). The immediate research product is a convenient expression for every adsorbate-adsorbent system which is discussed in this paper, for calculating the adsorption concentration as a function of temperature and pressure. A more general research product is a better understanding of the Sips parameter characteristics that should help in developing future adsorbents on demand.     

Elucidating the role of many-body forces in liquid water. I. Simulations of water clusters on the VRT(ASP-W) potential surfaces

We test two new potentials for water, fit to vibration-rotation tunneling (VRT) data by employing diffusion quantum Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the vibrational ground-state properties of water clusters. These potentials, VRT(ASP-W)II and VRT(ASP-W)III, are fits of the highly detailed ASP-W (anisotropic site potential with Woermer dispersion) ab initio potential to (D(2)O)(2) microwave and far-infrared data, and along with the SAPT5s (five-site symmetry adapted perturbation theory) potentials, are the most accurate water dimer potential surfaces in the literature. The results from VRT(ASP-W)II and III are compared to those from the original ASP-W potential, the SAPT5s family of potentials, and several bulk water potentials. Only VRT(ASP-W)III and the spectroscopically "tuned" SAPT5st (with N-body induction included) accurately reproduce the vibrational ground-state structures of water clusters up to the hexamer. Finally, the importance of many-body induction and three-body dispersion are examined, and it is shown that the latter can have significant effects on water cluster properties despite its small magnitude.     

Perturbation theories and wave functions for calculation of electronic polarizabilities application to DNA bases

Three different forms of perturbation theories, variational perturbation, finite perturbation and second-order, are evaluated regarding their value for calculation of electronic polarizabilities of small and intermediate size molecules. It is concluded that with the practical constraint of a small basis set the variational perturbation method is the most promising alternative for calculation of polarizabilities. For several small molecules, our calculated polarizabilities indicate that both IEHT and ab initio wave functions give values in close agreement with each other. Variational perturbation calculations of polarizabilities with IEHT wave functions also include the DNA bases.     

Detection and Identification of Alkylating Agents by Using a Bioinspired “Chemical Nose”

Alkylating agents are simple and reactive molecules that are commonly used in many and diverse fields such as organic synthesis, medicine, and agriculture. Some highly reactive alkylating species are also being used as blister chemical‐warfare agents. The detection and identification of alkylating agents is not a trivial issue because of their high reactivity and simple structure. Herein, we report on a new multispot luminescence‐based approach to the detection and identification of alkylating agents. In order to demonstrate the potential of the approach, seven π‐conjugated oligomers and polymers bearing nucleophilic pyridine groups, 1 – 7 , were adsorbed onto a solid support and exposed to vapors of alkylators 8 – 15 . The alkylation‐induced color‐shift patterns of the seven‐spot array allow clear discrimination of the different alkylators. The spots are sensitive to minute concentrations of alkylators and, because the detection is based on the formation of new covalent bonds, these spots saturate at about 50 ppb.     

Suppression of thermal lensing effects in intra-cavity coherent combining of lasers

An efficient approach to suppress thermal lensing, when coherently combining several laser distributions, is presented. It is based on incorporating a compensating lens inside the laser cavity. The results reveal that with compensation the overall efficiencies can be more than 80% when combining four laser distributions and more than 90% when combining two laser distributions even at relatively high pulse repetition rates. A model for analyzing coherent combining is developed, where predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Leptogenesis from supersymmetry breaking

We show that soft supersymmetry breaking terms involving the heavy sneutrinos can lead to sneutrino-antisneutrino mixing and to new sources of CP violation, which are present even if a single generation is considered. These terms are naturally present in supersymmetric versions of leptogenesis scenarios, and they induce indirect CP violation in the decays of the heavy sneutrinos, eventually generating a baryon asymmetry. This new contribution can be comparable to or even dominate over the asymmetry produced in traditional leptogenesis scenarios.     

Dicke photon trapping effects in molecular beam-foil experiments

The phenomena of delayed spontaneous emission in molecular beam-foil experiments, is interpreted as Dicke photon trapping.     

Axisymmetric motion of a pair of deformable heavy drops in an upward temperature gradient

The axisymmetric deformation and motion of interacting droplets under the combined influence of the gravitational force and a vertical temperature gradient is considered using boundary-integral techniques for creeping flow. The focus is on the case when the net thermocapillary and buoyancy forces acting on the drops are directed oppositely. When these forces are almost balanced our analysis shows that, though the deformations of the drops are apparently small, their influence on the motion is considerable. For highly deformable drops moving in a gravity field, even a small temperature gradient that almost does not effect the drops velocity may drastically change the deformation pattern and prevent the drops from breakup.