434 research outputs found
A Microscopic Energy- and Density-Dependent Effective Interaction and its Test by Nucleus-Nucleus Scattering
An effective nucleon-nucleon interaction calculated in nuclear matter from
the Bonn potential has been parametrized in terms of a local density- and
energy-dependent two-body interaction. This allows to calculate the real part
of the nucleus-nucleus scattering potential and to test this effective
interaction over a wide region of densities () produced
dynamically in scattering experiments. Comparing our calculations with
empirical potentials extracted from data on light and heavy ion scattering by
model-unrestricted analysis methods, we find quantitative agreement with the
exception of proton scattering. The failure in this case may be traced back to
the properties of the effective interaction at low densities, for which the
nuclear matter results are not reliable. The success of the interaction at high
overlap densities confirms the empirical evidence for a soft equation of state
for cold nuclear matter.Comment: 8 pages 3 Figures included, to appear in Phys. Lett.
In-Situ Observation of Membrane Protein Folding during Cell-Free Expression.
Proper insertion, folding and assembly of functional proteins in biological membranes are key processes to warrant activity of a living cell. Here, we present a novel approach to trace folding and insertion of a nascent membrane protein leaving the ribosome and penetrating the bilayer. Surface Enhanced IR Absorption Spectroscopy selectively monitored insertion and folding of membrane proteins during cell-free expression in a label-free and non-invasive manner. Protein synthesis was performed in an optical cell containing a prism covered with a thin gold film with nanodiscs on top, providing an artificial lipid bilayer for folding. In a pilot experiment, the folding pathway of bacteriorhodopsin via various secondary and tertiary structures was visualized. Thus, a methodology is established with which the folding reaction of other more complex membrane proteins can be observed during protein biosynthesis (in situ and in operando) at molecular resolution
2s Hyperfine Structure in Hydrogen Atom and Helium-3 Ion
The usefulness of study of hyperfine splitting in the hydrogen atom is
limited on a level of 10 ppm by our knowledge of the proton structure. One way
to go beyond 10 ppm is to study a specific difference of the hyperfine
structure intervals 8 Delta nu_2 - Delta nu_1. Nuclear effects for are not
important this difference and it is of use to study higher-order QED
corrections.Comment: 10 pages, presented at Hydrogen Atom II meeting (2000
Local Optical Spectroscopy in Quantum Confined Systems: A Theoretical Description
A theoretical description of local absorption is proposed in order to
investigate spectral variations on a length scale comparable with the extension
of the relevant quantum states. A general formulation is derived within the
density-matrix formalism including Coulomb correlation, and applied to the
prototypical case of coupled quantum wires. The results show that excitonic
effects may have a crucial impact on the local absorption with implications for
the spatial resolution and the interpretation of near-field optical spectra.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. - 11 pages, 3 PostScript figures (1
figure in colors) embedded. Uses RevTex, and psfig style
Dynamical Decoupling of Open Quantum Systems
We propose a novel dynamical method for beating decoherence and dissipation
in open quantum systems. We demonstrate the possibility of filtering out the
effects of unwanted (not necessarily known) system-environment interactions and
show that the noise-suppression procedure can be combined with the capability
of retaining control over the effective dynamical evolution of the open quantum
system. Implications for quantum information processing are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, no figures; Plain ReVTeX. Final version to appear in
Physical Review Letter
Transverse lipid organization dictates bending fluctuations in model plasma membranes
© 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Membrane undulations play a vital role in many biological processes, including the regulation of membrane protein activity. The asymmetric lipid composition of most biological membranes complicates theoretical description of these bending fluctuations, yet experimental data that would inform any such a theory is scarce. Here, we used neutron spin-echo (NSE) spectroscopy to measure the bending fluctuations of large unilamellar vesicles (LUV) having an asymmetric transbilayer distribution of high- and low-melting lipids. The asymmetric vesicles were prepared using cyclodextrin-mediated lipid exchange, and were composed of an outer leaflet enriched in egg sphingomyelin (ESM) and an inner leaflet enriched in 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphoethanolamine (POPE), which have main transition temperatures of 37 °C and 25 °C, respectively. The overall membrane bending rigidity was measured at three temperatures: 15 °C, where both lipids are in a gel state; 45 °C, where both lipids are in a fluid state; and 30 °C, where there is gel-fluid co-existence. Remarkably, the dynamics for the fluid asymmetric LUVs (aLUVs) at 30 °C and 45 °C do not follow trends predicted by their symmetric counterparts. At 30 °C, compositional asymmetry suppressed the bending fluctuations, with the asymmetric bilayer exhibiting a larger bending modulus than that of symmetric bilayers corresponding to either the outer or inner leaflet. We conclude that the compositional asymmetry and leaflet coupling influence the internal dissipation within the bilayer and result in membrane properties that cannot be directly predicted from corresponding symmetric bilayers
Active Membrane Fluctuations Studied by Micropipet Aspiration
We present a detailed analysis of the micropipet experiments recently
reported in J-B. Manneville et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4356--4359 (1999),
including a derivation of the expected behaviour of the membrane tension as a
function of the areal strain in the case of an active membrane, i.e.,
containing a nonequilibrium noise source. We give a general expression, which
takes into account the effect of active centers both directly on the membrane,
and on the embedding fluid dynamics, keeping track of the coupling between the
density of active centers and the membrane curvature. The data of the
micropipet experiments are well reproduced by the new expressions. In
particular, we show that a natural choice of the parameters quantifying the
strength of the active noise explains both the large amplitude of the observed
effects and its remarkable insensitivity to the active-center density in the
investigated range. [Submitted to Phys Rev E, 22 March 2001]Comment: 14 pages, 5 encapsulated Postscript figure
Influence of ceramide on lipid domain stability studied with small-angle neutron scattering: The role of acyl chain length and unsaturation
Ceramides and diacylglycerols are groups of lipids capable of nucleating and stabilizing ordered lipid domains, structures that have been implicated in a range of biological processes. Previous studies have used fluorescence reporter molecules to explore the influence of ceramide acyl chain structure on sphingolipid-rich ordered phases. Here, we use small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) to examine the ability of ceramides and diacylglycerols to promote lipid domain formation in the well-characterized domain- forming mixture DPPC/DOPC/cholesterol. SANS is a powerful, probe-free technique for interrogating membrane heterogeneity, as it is differentially sensitive to hydrogen\u27s stable isotopes protium and deuterium. Specifcally, neutron contrast is generated through selective deuteration of lipid species, thus enabling the detection of nanoscopic domains enriched in deuterated saturated lipids dispersed in a matrix of protiated un- saturated lipids. Using large unilamellar vesicles, we found that upon replacing 10 mol % DPPC with either C16:0 or C18:0 ceramide, or 16:0 diacylglycerol (dag), lipid domains persisted to higher temperatures. However, when DPPC was replaced with short chain (C6:0 or C12:0) or very long chain (C24:0) ceramides, or ceramides with unsaturated acyl chains of any length (C6:1(3), C6:1(5), C18:1, and C24:1), as well as C18:1-dag, lipid domains were destabilized, melting at lower temperatures than those in the DPPC/DOPC/cholesterol system. These results show how ceramide acyl chain length and unsaturation influence lipid domains, and have implications for how cell membranes might modify their function through the generation of different ceramide species
Subdecoherent Information Encoding in a Quantum-Dot Array
A potential implementation of quantum-information schemes in semiconductor
nanostructures is studied. To this end, the formal theory of quantum encoding
for avoiding errors is recalled and the existence of noiseless states for model
systems is discussed. Based on this theoretical framework, we analyze the
possibility of designing noiseless quantum codes in realistic semiconductor
structures. In the specific implementation considered, information is encoded
in the lowest energy sector of charge excitations of a linear array of quantum
dots. The decoherence channel considered is electron-phonon coupling We show
that besides the well-known phonon bottleneck, reducing single-qubit
decoherence, suitable many-qubit initial preparation as well as register design
may enhance the decoherence time by several orders of magnitude. This behaviour
stems from the effective one-dimensional character of the phononic environment
in the relevant region of physical parameters.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, 5 postscript figures. Final version accepted by PR
The antioxidant vitamin E as a membrane raft modulator: Tocopherols do not abolish lipid domains
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. The antioxidant vitamin E is a commonly used vitamin supplement. Although the multi-billion dollar vitamin and nutritional supplement industry encourages the use of vitamin E, there is very little evidence supporting its actual health benefits. Moreover, vitamin E is now marketed as a lipid raft destabilizing anti-cancer agent, in addition to its antioxidant behaviour. Here, we studied the influence of vitamin E and some of its vitamers on membrane raft stability using phase separating unilamellar lipid vesicles in conjunction with small-angle scattering techniques and fluorescence microscopy. We find that lipid phase behaviour remains unperturbed well beyond physiological concentrations of vitamin E (up to a mole fraction of 0.10). Our results are consistent with a proposed line active role of vitamin E at the domain boundary. We discuss the implications of these findings as they pertain to lipid raft modification in native membranes, and propose a new hypothesis for the antioxidant mechanism of vitamin E
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