Positions and Widths of Anticrossings for Potassium Rydberg Stark States

The B-spline expansion technique is applied to study the anticrossings for potassium Rydberg states in a static electric field. The results of our calculation indicate that the antierossings are caused mainly by the core interaction or by the fine structure interaction. Our results for the positions and the widths of the anticrossings are in good agreement with experimental data.     

An Exploration of the Effect of the Kleier Model and Carrier-Mediated Theory to Design Phloem-Mobile Pesticides Based on Researching the N-Alkylated Derivatives of Phenazine-1-Carboxylic Acid-Glycine

The Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory are effective for molecularly designing pesticides with phloem mobility. However, the single Kleier model or Carrier-mediated theory cannot achieve a reliable explanation of the phloem mobility of all exogenous substances. A detailed investigation of the two models and the scope of their applications can provide a more accurate and highly efficient basis for the guidance of the design and development of phloem-mobile pesticides. In the present paper, a strategy using active ingredient-amino acid conjugates as mode compounds is developed based on Carrier-mediated theory. An N-alkylated amino acid is used to improve the pesticide’s physicochemical properties following the Kleier model, thus allowing the conjugates to fall on the predicted and more accessible transportation region of phloem. Moreover, the influence of this movement on phloem is inspected by the Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory. To verify this strategy, a series of N-alkylated phenazine-1-carboxylic acid-glycine compounds (PCA-Gly) were designed and synthesized. The results related to the castor bean seeds (R. communis L.) indicated that all the target compounds (4a–4f) had phloem mobility. The capacity for phloem mobility shows that N-alkylated glycine containing small substituents can significantly improve PCA phloem mobility, such as 4c(i-C₃H₇-N) > 4a(CH₃-N) ≈ 4b(C₂H₅-N) > 4d (t-C₄H₉-N) > PCA-Gly > 4e(C₆H₅-N) > 4f(CH₂COOH-N), with an oil–water partition coefficient between 1.2~2.5. In particular, compounds 4a(CH₃-N), 4b(C₂H₅-N), and 4c(i-C₃H₇-N) present better phloem mobility, with the average concentrations in phloem sap of 14.62 μΜ, 13.98 μΜ, and 17.63 μΜ in the first 5 h, which are 8 to 10 times higher than PCA-Gly (1.71 μΜ). The results reveal that the Kleier model and Carrier-mediated theory play a guiding role in the design of phloem-mobile pesticides. However, the single Kleier model or Carrier-mediated theory are not entirely accurate. Still, there is a synergism between Carrier-mediated theory and the Kleier model for promoting the phloem transport of exogenous compounds. Therefore, we suggest the introduction of endogenous plant compounds as a promoiety to improve the phloem mobility of pesticides through Carrier-mediated theory. It is necessary to consider the improvement of physicochemical properties according to the Kleier model, which can contribute to a scientific theory for developing phloem-mobile pesticides.     

Numerical Study of φ4 Model by Potential Importance Sampling Method

We investigate the phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking for φ⁴ model on a square lattice in the parameter space by using the potential importance sampling method, which was proposed by Milchev, Heermann, and Binder [J. Stat. Phys. 44 (1986) 749]. The critical values of the parameters allow us to determine the phase diagram of the model. At the same time, some relevant quantities such as susceptibility and specific heat are also obtained.     

Investigation of the Uptake and Transport of Two Novel Camptothecin Derivatives in Caco-2 Cell Monolayers

Irinotecan and Topotecan are two Camptothecin derivatives (CPTs) whose resistance is associated with the high expression of breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp). To reverse this resistance, two novel CPTs, FL77-28 (7-(3-Fluoro-4-methylphenyl)-10,11-methylenedioxy-20(S)-CPT) and FL77-29 (7-(4-Fluoro-3-methylphenyl)-10,11-methylenedioxy-20(S)-CPT), were synthesized by our group. In this study, the anti-tumor activities of FL77-28, FL77-29, and their parent, FL118 (10,11-methylenedioxy-20(S)-CPT), were evaluated and the results showed that FL77-28 and FL77-29 had stronger anti-tumor activities than FL118. The transport and uptake of FL118, FL77-28, and FL77-29 were investigated in Caco-2 cells for the preliminary prediction of intestinal absorption. The apparent permeability coefficient from apical to basolateral (P_{app AP-BL}) values of FL77-28 and FL77-29 were (2.32 ± 0.04) × 10⁻⁶ cm/s and (2.48 ± 0.18) × 10⁻⁶ cm/s, respectively, suggesting that the compounds had moderate absorption. Since the transport property of FL77-28 was passive diffusion and the efflux ratio (ER) was less than 2, two chemical inhibitors were added to further confirm the involvement of efflux proteins. The results showed that FL77-28 was not a substrate of P-gp or BCRP, but FL77-29 was mediated by P-gp. In conclusion, FL77-28 might be a promising candidate to overcome drug resistance induced by multiple efflux proteins.     

Identification of Human Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase Inhibitor by a Pharmacophore-Based Virtual Screening Study

Human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (hDHODH) is an enzyme belonging to a flavin mononucleotide (FMN)-dependent family involved in de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis, a key biological pathway for highly proliferating cancer cells and pathogens. In fact, hDHODH proved to be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia, multiple myeloma, and viral and bacterial infections; therefore, the identification of novel hDHODH ligands represents a hot topic in medicinal chemistry. In this work, we reported a virtual screening study for the identification of new promising hDHODH inhibitors. A pharmacophore-based approach combined with a consensus docking analysis and molecular dynamics simulations was applied to screen a large database of commercial compounds. The whole virtual screening protocol allowed for the identification of a novel compound that is endowed with promising inhibitory activity against hDHODH and is structurally different from known ligands. These results validated the reliability of the in silico workflow and provided a valuable starting point for hit-to-lead and future lead optimization studies aimed at the development of new potent hDHODH inhibitors.     

Alpha-Beta Hybrid Quantum Associative Memory Using Hamming Distance

This work presents a quantum associative memory (Alpha-Beta HQAM) that uses the Hamming distance for pattern recovery. The proposal combines the Alpha-Beta associative memory, which reduces the dimensionality of patterns, with a quantum subroutine to calculate the Hamming distance in the recovery phase. Furthermore, patterns are initially stored in the memory as a quantum superposition in order to take advantage of its properties. Experiments testing the memory’s viability and performance were implemented using IBM’s Qiskit library.     

Perturbative Power Counting,Lowest-Index Operators and Their Renormalization in Standard Model Effective Field Theory

We study two aspects of higher dimensional operators in standard model effective field theory.We first introduce a perturbative power counting rule for the entries in the anomalous dimension matrix of operators with equal mass dimension.The power counting is determined by the number of loops and the difference of the indices of the two operators involved,which in turn is defined by assuming that all terms in the standard model Lagrangian have an equal perturbative power.Then we show that the operators with the lowest index are unique at each mass dimension d,i.e.,(H~?H)~(d/2)for even d≥4,and(L~TεH)C(L~TεH)~T(H~?H)~((d-5)/2)for odd d≥5.Here H,L are the Higgs and lepton doublet,andε,C the antisymmetric matrix of rank two and the charge conjugation matrix,respectively.The renormalization group running of these operators can be studied separately from other operators of equal mass dimension at the leading order in power counting.We compute their anomalous dimensions at one loop for general d and find that they are enhanced quadratically in d due to combinatorics.We also make connections with classification of operators in terms of their holomorphic and anti-holomorphic weights.     

Spin Transport in a Rashba Ring-Quantum Dot System Pumped by Microwave Fields

We report a theoretical study on producing electrically spin-polarized current in the Rashba ring with parallel double dots embedded, which are subject to two time-dependent microwave fields. By means of the Keldysh Green's function method, we present an analytic result of the pumped current at adiabatic limit and demonstrate that the interplay between the quantum pumping effectand spin-dependent quantum interference can lead to an arbitrarily controllable spin-polarized current in the device. The magnitude and direction of the charge and spin current can be effectively modulated by system parameters such as the pumping phase difference, Rashba precession phase, and the dynamic phase difference of electron traveling in two arms of ring; moreover, thespin-polarization degree of the charge current can also be tuned in the range [-∞, +∞]. Our findings may shed light on the all-electric way to produce the controllable spin-polarized charge current in the field of spintronics.     

Scattering Matrix Modeling of Photon Migration in Turbid Media

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