Biomimetic peptide self-assembly for functional materials

Biomolecular systems have evolved to form a rich variety of supramolecular materials and machinery fundamental to cellular function. The assembly of these structures commonly involves interactions between specific molecular building blocks, a strategy that can also be replicated in an artificial setting to prepare functional materials. The self20 assembly of synthetic biomimetic peptides allows us to explore chemical and sequence space beyond that used routinely by biology. In this Review, we discuss recent conceptual and experimental advances in self-assembly of artificial peptidic materials. In particular, we explore how naturally-occurring structures and phenomena have inspired the development of functional biomimetic materials that we can harness for potential interactions with biological systems. As our fundamental understanding of peptide self-assembly evolves, increasingly sophisticated materials and applications emerge and lead to the development of a new set of building blocks and assembly principles relevant to materials science, molecular biology, nanotechnology and precision medicine

Diffractive D_s production in charged current DIS

We present a perturbative QCD calculation of diffractive $D_s$ production in charged current deep inelastic scattering. In the two-gluon exchange model, we analyze the diffractive process \nu N \to \mu^- N \Ds, which may provide useful information for the gluon structure of nucleons and the diffraction mechanism in QCD. The cross section of diffractive $D_s$ production with \xBj=0.005-0.05 and $E_\nu=50$ Gev is found to be $2.7\times10^{-5}$ pb. In spite of this small cross section, the high luminosity available at the $\nu$-Factory in the future would lead to a sizable number of diffraction events.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figures, final version to appear in PL

\chi_{cJ} polarizations at the Fermilab Tevatron

We propose the measurement of $\chi_{cJ}$ polarizations at high energy hadron colliders to study heavy quarkonium production mechanism. We find that the color-singlet model in the $k_t$ factorization approach predicts very different behavior for $\chi_{cJ}$ polarizations at the Fermilab Tevatron compared with the NRQCD predictions in the collinear parton model. In the color-singlet $k_t$ factorization approach, for both $\chi_{c1}$ and $\chi_{c2}$ productions, the helicity $h=0$ states dominate over other helicity states at large $p_T$. These properties are very useful in distinguishing between the two production mechanisms which are related to the interesting issue of $J\psi$ and $\psi'$ polarizations, and may provide a crucial test for the $k_t$ factorization approach.Comment: PLB in pres

Sequential Effects in Judgements of Attractiveness: The Influences of Face Race and Sex

In perceptual decision-making, a person’s response on a given trial is influenced by their response on the immediately preceding trial. This sequential effect was initially demonstrated in psychophysical tasks, but has now been found in more complex, real-world judgements. The similarity of the current and previous stimuli determines the nature of the effect, with more similar items producing assimilation in judgements, while less similarity can cause a contrast effect. Previous research found assimilation in ratings of facial attractiveness, and here, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by the social categories of the faces presented. Over three experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of own- (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces of both sexes that appeared successively. Through blocking trials by race (Experiment 1), sex (Experiment 2), or both dimensions (Experiment 3), we could examine how sequential judgements were altered by the salience of different social categories in face sequences. For sequences that varied in sex alone, own-race faces showed significantly less opposite-sex assimilation (male and female faces perceived as dissimilar), while other-race faces showed equal assimilation for opposite- and same-sex sequences (male and female faces were not differentiated). For sequences that varied in race alone, categorisation by race resulted in no opposite-race assimilation for either sex of face (White and Chinese faces perceived as dissimilar). For sequences that varied in both race and sex, same-category assimilation was significantly greater than opposite-category. Our results suggest that the race of a face represents a superordinate category relative to sex. These findings demonstrate the importance of social categories when considering sequential judgements of faces, and also highlight a novel approach for investigating how multiple social dimensions interact during decision-making

Polarizations of J/\psi and \psi' in hadroproduction at Tevatron in the k_t factorization approach

We present a calculation for the polarizations of $J/\psi$ and $\psi'$ produced in the hadron collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron. Various color octet channels including ${}^1S_0^{(8)}$, ${}^3P_J^{(8)}$, and ${}^3S_1^{(8)}$ as well as contributions from $\chi_{cJ}$ decays are considered in the $k_t$ factorization approach. We find that in a rather wide range of the transverse momenta of $J/\psi$ and $\psi'$, the production rates could be dominated by the ${}^1S_0^{(8)}$ channel, and the predicted polarizations from the ${}^1S_0^{(8)}$ channel and $\chi_{cJ}$ feeddown contributions are roughly compatible with the preliminary CDF data. This might provide a possible release from the conflict between the NRQCD collinear parton model calculations and the CDF data.Comment: 12 pages, 4 PS files, final version for publicatio

Developmental Exposure of Rats to Chlorpyrifos Leads to Behavioral Alterations in Adulthood, Involving Serotonergic Mechanisms and Resembling Animal Models of Depression

Developmental exposure to chlorpyrifos (CPF) causes persistent changes in serotonergic (5HT) systems. We administered 1 mg/kg/day CPF to rats on postnatal days 1–4, a regimen below the threshold for systemic toxicity. When tested in adulthood, CPF-exposed animals showed abnormalities in behavioral tests that involve 5HT mechanisms. In the elevated plus maze, males treated with CPF spent more time in the open arms, an effect seen with 5HT deficiencies in animal models of depression. Similarly, in an anhedonia test, the CPF-exposed group showed a decreased preference for chocolate milk versus water. Developmental CPF exposure also has lasting effects on cognitive function. We replicated our earlier finding that developmental CPF exposure ablates the normal sex differences in 16-arm radial maze learning and memory: during acquisition training, control male rats typically perform more accurately than do control females, but CPF treatment eliminated this normal sex difference. Females exposed to CPF showed a reduction in working and reference memory errors down to the rate of control males. Conversely, CPF-exposed males exhibited an increase in working and reference memory errors. After radial-arm acquisition training, we assessed the role of 5HT by challenging the animals with the 5HT(2) receptor antagonist ketanserin. Ketanserin did not affect performance in controls but elicited dose-dependent increases in working and reference memory errors in the CPF group, indicating an abnormal dependence on 5HT systems. Our results indicate that neonatal CPF exposures, classically thought to be subtoxic, produce lasting changes in 5HT-related behaviors that resemble animal models of depression

Quark initiated coherent diffractive production of muon pair and W boson at hadron colliders

The large transverse momentum muon pair and W boson productions in the quark initiated coherent diffractive processes at hadron colliders are discussed under the framework of the two-gluon exchange parametrization of the Pomeron model. In this approach, the production cross sections are related to the small-x off-diagonal gluon distribution and the large-x quark distribution in the proton (antiproton). By approximating the off-diagonal gluon distribution by the usual gluon distribution function, we estimate the production rates of these processes at the Fermilab Tevatron.Comment: 11pages, 6 PS figures, to appear in PR

Polynomial Method for PLL Controller Optimization†

The Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is a key component of modern electronic communication and control systems. PLL is designed to extract signals from transmission channels. It plays an important role in systems where it is required to estimate the phase of a received signal, such as carrier tracking from global positioning system satellites. In order to robustly provide centimeter-level accuracy, it is crucial for the PLL to estimate the instantaneous phase of an incoming signal which is usually buried in random noise or some type of interference. This paper presents an approach that utilizes the recent development in the semi-definite programming and sum-of-squares field. A Lyapunov function will be searched as the certificate of the pull-in range of the PLL system. Moreover, a polynomial design procedure is proposed to further refine the controller parameters for system response away from the equilibrium point. Several simulation results as well as an experiment result are provided to show the effectiveness of this approach