Oxidative dissolution of synthetic vivianites as a method for the crystallization of molecular structural motifs

Structural Chemistry - Isolation of structural motifs from minerals can be used to improve the understanding of fundamental processes such as catalytic mechanisms and spectroscopic vibrations. In...     

The Cytotoxic Effect of α-Synuclein Aggregates

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder involving a functional protein, α-synuclein, whose primary function is related to vesicle trafficking. However, α-synuclein is prone to form aggregates, and these inclusions, known as Lewy bodies, are the hallmark of Parkinson's disease. α-synuclein can alter its conformation and acquire aggregating capacity, forming aggregates containing β-sheets. This protein's pathogenic importance is based on its ability to form oligomers that impair synaptic transmission and neuronal function by increasing membrane permeability and altering homeostasis, generating a deleterious effect over cells. First, we establish that oligomers interfere with the mechanical properties of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) membrane, as demonstrated by nanoindentation curves. In contrast, nanoindentation revealed that the α-synuclein monomer's presence leads to a much more resistant lipid bilayer. Moreover, the oligomers’ interaction with cell membranes can promote lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, suggesting the activation of cytotoxic events.     

Data‐Driven Optimal Transport

The problem of optimal transport between two distributions ρ(x) and μ(y) is extended to situations where the distributions are only known through a finite number of samples {x_i} and {y_j}. A weak formulation is proposed, based on the dual of the Kantorovich formulation, with two main modifications: replacing the expected values in the objective function by their empirical means over the {x_i} and {y_j}, and restricting the dual variables u(x) and v(y) to a suitable set of test functions adapted to the local availability of sample points. A procedure is proposed and tested for the numerical solution of this problem, based on a fluidlike flow in phase space, where the sample points play the role of active Lagrangian markers. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Variational characterization for eigenvalues of Dirac operators

In this paper we give two different variational characterizations for the eigenvalues of H+V where H denotes the free Dirac operator and V is a scalar potential. The first one is a min-max involving a Rayleigh quotient. The second one consists in minimizing an appropriate nonlinear functional. Both methods can be applied to potentials which have singularities as strong as the Coulomb potential. Received June 5, 1998 / Accepted June 11, 1999     

Metrics in the sphere of a C*-module

Given a unital C*-algebra and a right C*-module over , we consider the problem of finding short smooth curves in the sphere = {x ∈ : 〈x, x〉 = 1}. Curves in are measured considering the Finsler metric which consists of the norm of at each tangent space of . The initial value problem is solved, for the case when is a von Neumann algebra and is selfdual: for any element x ₀ ∈ and any tangent vector ν at x ₀, there exists a curve γ(t) = e ^tZ (x ₀), Z ∈ , Z* = −Z and ∥Z∥ ≤ π, such that γ(0) = x ₀ and (0) = ν, which is minimizing along its path for t ∈ [0, 1]. The existence of such Z is linked to the extension problem of selfadjoint operators. Such minimal curves need not be unique. Also we consider the boundary value problem: given x ₀, x ₁ ∈ , find a curve of minimal length which joins them. We give several partial answers to this question. For instance, let us denote by f ₀ the selfadjoint projection I − x ₀ ⊗ x ₀, if the algebra f ₀ f ₀ is finite dimensional, then there exists a curve γ joining x ₀ and x ₁, which is minimizing along its path.      

Numerical Representations of Interval Orders

In the framework of the analysis of orderings whose associated indifference relation is not necessarily transitive, we study the structure of an interval order and its representability through a pair of real-valued functions. We obtain a list of characterizations of the existence of a representation, showing that the three main techniques that have been used in the literature to achieve numerical representations of interval orders are indeed equivalent.     

An analytical proof of Hardy-like inequalities related to the Dirac operator

We prove some sharp Hardy-type inequalities related to the Dirac operator by elementary, direct methods. Some of these inequalities have been obtained previously using spectral information about the Dirac-Coulomb operator. Our results are stated under optimal conditions on the asymptotics of the potentials near zero and near infinity.     

Explanation of Variability and Removal of Confounding Factors from Data through Optimal Transport

A methodology based on the theory of optimal transport is developed to attribute variability in data sets to known and unknown factors and to remove such attributable components of the variability from the data. Denoting by x the quantities of interest and by z the explanatory factors, the procedure transforms x into filtered variables y through a z‐dependent map, so that the conditional probability distributions ρ(x|z) are pushed forward into a target distribution μ(y), independent of z. Among all maps and target distributions that achieve this goal, the procedure selects the one that minimally distorts the original data: the barycenter of the ρ(x|z). Connections are found to unsupervised learning and to fundamental problems in statistics such as conditional density estimation and sampling. Particularly simple instances of the methodology are shown to be equivalent to k‐means and principal component analysis. An application is shown to a time series of ground temperature hourly data across the United States.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Geometry and the Jones projection of a state

LetA be a von Neumann algebra and a faithful normal state. ThenO = { ºAd(g ¹) :g G _A }andU = { ºAd(u ^*) :u U _A are homogeneous reductive spaces. IfA is aC ^* algebra,e the Jones projection of the faithful state viewed as a conditional expectation, then we prove that the similarity orbit ofe by invertible elements ofA can be imbedded inAA in such a way thate is carried to 1 1 and the orbit ofe to a homogeneous reductive space and an analytic submanifold ofAA.