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.     

Effect of absorbed pump power on the quality of output beam from monolithic microchip lasers

The dependence of the beam propagation factor (M ² parameter) with the absorbed pump power in the case of monolithic microchip laser under face-cooled configuration is extensively studied. Our investigations show that the M ₂ parameter is related to the absorbed pump power through two parameters (α and β) whose values depend on the laser material properties and laser configuration. We have shown that one parameter arises due to the oscillation of higher order modes in the microchip cavity and the other parameter accounts for the spherical aberration associated with the thermal lens induced by the pump beam. Such dependency of M ² parameter with the absorbed pump power is experimentally verified for a face-cooled monolithic microchip laser based on Nd³⁺ -doped GdVO₄ crystal and the values of α and β parameters were estimated from the experimentally measured data points.     

瓣形均匀带电面在其直径处的电势分布

从点电荷的电势计算公式出发推导出了瓣形均匀带电面在其直径处的电势分布.进一步讨论了均匀带电半球面在其底面以及均匀带电球面内部和外部的电势分布.     

Kolmogorov Width of Classes of Smooth Functions on the Sphere

Let ^d−1{(x₁,…,x_d) ^d:x²₁+···+x²_d=1} be the unit sphere of the d-dimensional Euclidean space ^d. For r>0, we denote by B^r_p (1p∞) the class of functions f on ^d−1 representable in the formwhere dσ(y) denotes the usual Lebesgue measure on ^d−1, and P^λ_k(t) is the ultraspherical polynomial.For 1p,q∞, the Kolmogorov N-width of B^r_p in L^q( ^d−1) is given bythe left-most infimum being taken over all N-dimensional subspaces X_N of L^q( ^d−1).The main result in this paper is that for r2(d−1)²,where A_NB_N means that there exists a positive constant C, independent of N, such that C⁻¹A_NB_NCA_N.This extends the well-known Kashin theorem on the asymptotic order of the Kolmogorov widths of the Sobolev class of the periodic functions.     

Scattering relations for point‐source excitation in chiral media

A spherical electromagnetic wave propagating in a chiral medium is scattered by a bounded chiral obstacle which can have any of the usual properties. Reciprocity and general scattering theorems, relating the scattered fields due to scattering of waves from a point source put in any two different locations are established. Applying the general scattering theorem for appropriate locations and polarizations of the point source we prove an associated forward scattering theorem. Mixed scattering relations, relating the scattered fields due to a plane wave and the far‐field patterns due to a spherical wave, are also established. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interface Optical Phonon Modes and Frohlich Electron-Phonon Interaction Hamiltonian in a Multi-shell Spherical Nanoheterosystem

Under dielectric continuum approximation, interface optical (IO) phonon modes and the Frohlich electron-IO phonon interaction Hamiltonian in a multi-shell spherical nanoheterosystem were derived and studied. Numericalcalculations on three-layer and four-layer CdS/HgS spherical nanoheterosystems have been performed. Results revealthat there are four IO phonon modes for the three-layer system and six IO phonon modes for the four-layer system.On each interface, there are two IO phonon modes, the frequency of one is between WTO,CdS and WLO,CdS, and that ofthe other is between WTO,HgS and WLO,HgS. With the increasing of quantum number l, the frequency of each IO modeapproaches one of the two frequency values of the single CdS/HgS heterostructure, and the potential for each IO modeis more and more localized at a certain interface, furthermore, the coupling between the electron-lO phonons becomes weaker.     

Viscosity solution theory of a class of nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations II. Lipschitz continuity of free boundary

In [1] we construct a unique bounded Hölder continuous viscosity solution for the nonlinear PDEs with the evolutionp-Laplacian equation and its anisotropic version as typical examples. In this part, we investigate the Lipschitz continuity of the free boundary of viscosity solution and its asymptotic spherical symmetricity, however, this result does not include the anisotropic case.This research is supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China.     

Light scattering by groups of spherical particles

Light scattering by groups of spherical particles is considered. It is shown that the structure of the groups and their orientational distribution can be judged from the spectrum and polarization of the scattered light. Syktyvkar State University, 55, Oktyabr'skii Ave., Syktyvkar, 167001, Russia. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 228–231, March–April, 1997.     

Thermal and chemical nanofractal relaxation

We studied shape relaxation of nano-fractal islands, during annealing, after their growth from antimony cluster deposition on graphite surface. Annealing at 180^°C shows evidence of an increase of the fractal branch width with time followed by branch fragmentation, without changing the fractal dimension. The time evolution of the width of the arm suggests the surface self-diffusion mechanism as the main relaxation process. With Monte Carlo simulations, we confirmed the observed behavior. Comparison is done with our previous results on fragmentation of nano-fractal silver islands when impurity added to the incident cluster promotes rapid fragmentation by surface self-diffusion enhancement [1].