Bosonic Helium droplets with cationic impurities: onset of electrostriction and snowball effects from quantum calculations

Variational MonteCarlo and Diffusion MonteCarlo calculations have been carried out for cations like Li$^+$, Na$^+$ and K$^+$ as dopants of small helium clusters over a range of cluster sizes up to about 12 solvent atoms. The interaction has been modelled through a sum-of-potential picture that disregards higher order effects beyond atom-atom and atom-ion contributions. The latter were obtained from highly correlated ab-initio calculations over a broad range of interatomic distances. This study focuses on two of the most striking features of the microsolvation in a quantum solvent of a cationic dopant: electrostriction and snowball effects. They are here discussed in detail and in relation with the nanoscopic properties of the interaction forces at play within a fully quantum picture of the clusters features

Non-Collinear Magnetism due to Orbital Degeneracy and Multipolar Interactions

The origin of non-collinear magnetism under quadrupolar ordering is investigated with CeB6 taken as a target system. The mode-mixing effect among 15 multipoles is analyzed based on the Ginzburg-Landau free energy. Then the lower magnetic transition temperature and the order parameters are derived within the mean-field approximation. In the presence of pseudo-dipole-type interactions for the next-nearest neighbors, the observed pattern of non-collinear ordering is indeed stabilized for certain set of interaction parameters. The stability of the phase III' in the magnetic field is also explained, which points to the importance of the next-nearest-neighbor octupole-octupole interaction. Concerning the phase IV in CexLa1-xB6 with x ~ 0.75, a possibility of pure octupole ordering is discussed based on slight modifications of the strength of interactions.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 70 (6) (2001

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

Modification of halloysite clay nanotubes with various alkyl halides, and their characterization, blood compatibility, biocompatibility, and genotoxicity

Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) clay were modified with alkyl halides, bromoethane (BrE), bromodecane (BrD), and bromooctadecane (BrOD), respectively. The FT-IR spectra of modified HNTs demonstrated an increase in the intensity of aliphatic –CH2 peaks at 2920 and 2850 cm?1 proportional to the number of C atoms in the modifying agent confirming the success of chemical modification with corresponding alkyl halides. Surface charge of NaOH treated HNTs, ?65.7 ± 5.1 mV was increased to ?37.1 ± 2.4, ?40.6 ± 5.3, and ?44.7 ± 1.9 mV, respectively upon chemical modification with BrE, BrD, and BrOD. The Surface area of the HNT clays, 43.2 ± 1.3 m2/g was also increased to 59.8 ± 2.7, 56.9 ± 2.1, and 47.9 ± 1.7 m2/g for BrE, BrD, and BrOD modified HNT clays, respectively. Base-activated HNT clays at 1 mg/mL concentration found to be nonhemolytic with 3.5 ± 1.2% hemolysis ratio, whereas HNT-BrOD clays were slightly exceeded hemolytic safety level with 6.6 ± 0.2% hemolysis induction. Base-activated HNT and HNT-BrOD clays were found to show antithrombogenic character with more than 100% blood clotting indexes,107.6 ± 1.8, and 106.5 ± 1.9%, respectively. Cytotoxicity studies of HNTs on L929 fibroblast cells revealed that HNTs in 12.5–200 ?g/mL concentration range were shown dose-dependent cell viability, and above 50% cell viability was maintained at 200 ?g/mL in all forms of HNT based clays administered. © 2020 Elsevier B.V