Inhibition of Subsets of G Protein-coupled Receptors by Empty Mutants of G Protein α Subunits in Go, G11, and G16

We previously reported that the xanthine nucleotide binding Goα mutant, GoαX, inhibited the activation of Gi-coupled receptors. We constructed similar mutations in G11α and G16α and characterized their nucleotide binding and receptor interaction. First, we found that G11αX and G16αX expressed in COS-7 cells bound xanthine 5'-O-(thiotriphosphate) instead of guanosine 5'-O-(thiotriphosphate). Second, we found that G11αX and G16αX interacted with βγ subunits in the presence of xanthine diphosphate. These experiments demonstrated that G11aαX and G16αX were xanthine nucleotide-binding proteins, similar to GoαX. Third, in COS-7 cells, both G11αX and G16αX inhibited the activation of Gq-coupled receptors, whereas only G16αX inhibited the activation of Gi-coupled receptors. Therefore, when in the nucleotide-free state, empty G11αX and G16αX appeared to retain the same receptor binding specificity as their wild-type counterparts. Finally, we found that GoαX, G11αX, and G16αX all inhibited the endogenous thrombin receptors and lysophosphatidic acid receptors in NIH3T3 cells, whereas G11αX and G16αX, but not GoαX, inhibited the activation of transfected m1 muscarinic receptor in these cells. We conclude that these empty G protein mutants of Goα, G11α, and G16α can act as dominant negative inhibitors against specific subsets of G protein-coupled receptors

Cosmological and Solar-System Tests of f(R) Modified Gravity

We investigate the cosmological and the local tests of the f(R) theory of modified gravity via the observations of (1) the cosmic expansion and (2) the cosmic structures and via (3) the solar-system experiments. To fit the possible cosmic expansion histories under consideration, for each of them we reconstruct f(R), known as "designer f(R)". We then test the designer f(R) via the cosmic-structure constraints on the metric perturbation ratio Psi/Phi and the effective gravitational coupling G_eff and via the solar-system constraints on the Brans-Dicke theory with the chameleon mechanism. We find that among the designer f(R) models specified by the CPL effective equation of state w_eff, only the model closely mimicking general relativity with a cosmological constant (LambdaCDM) can survive all the tests. Accordingly, these tests rule out the frequently studied "w_eff = -1" designer f(R) models which are distinct in cosmic structures from LambdaCDM. When considering only the cosmological tests, we find that the surviving designer f(R) models, although exist for a variety of w_eff, entail fine-tuning.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, LaTe

Novel magnetic phase in a weakly ordered spin-1/2 chain antiferromagnet Sr2_2CuO3_3

We present the magnetic phase diagram of a spin-1/2 chain antiferromagnet Sr$_2$CuO$_3$ studied by ultrasound phase-sensitive detection technique. We observe an enhanced effect of external magnetic field on the ordering temperature of the system, which is in the extreme proximity to the quantum critical point. Inside the N\'eel ordered phase, we detect an additional field-induced continuous phase transition, which is unexpected for a collinear Heisenberg antiferromagnet. This transition is accompanied by softening of magnetic excitation mode observed by electron-spin resonance, which can be associated with a longitudinal (amplitude) mode of the order parameter in a weakly-coupled system of spin-1/2 chains. These results suggest transition from a transverse collinear antiferromagnet to an amplitude-modulated spin density wave phase induced by magnetic field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Interaction of Gα₁₂ with Gα₁₃ and Gα_q signaling pathways

The G(12) subfamily of heterotrimeric G-proteins consists of two members, G(12) and G(13). Gene-targeting studies have revealed a role for G(13) in blood vessel development. Mice lacking the a subunit of G(13) die around embryonic day 10 as the result of an angiogenic defect. On the other hand, the physiological role of G(12) is still unclear. To address this issue, we generated Galpha(12)-deficient mice. In contrast to the Galpha(13)-deficient mice, Galpha(12)-deficient mice are viable, fertile, and do not show apparent abnormalities. However, Galpha(12) does not seem to be entirely redundant, because in the offspring generated from Galpha(12)+/-Galpha(13) intercrosses, at least one intact Galpha(12) allele is required for the survival of animals with only one Galpha(13) allele. In addition, Galpha(12) and Galpha(13) showed a difference in mediating cell migratory response to lysophosphatidic acid in embryonic fibroblast cells. Furthermore, mice lacking both Galpha(12) and Galpha(q) die in utero at about embryonic day 13. These data indicate that the Galpha(12)-mediated signaling pathway functionally interacts not only with the Galpha(13)- but also with the Galpha(q/11)-mediated signaling systems

Scattering on two Aharonov-Bohm vortices with opposite fluxes

The scattering of an incident plane wave on two Aharonov-Bohm vortices with opposite fluxes is considered in detail. The presence of the vortices imposes non-trivial boundary conditions for the partial waves on a cut joining the two vortices. These conditions result in an infinite system of equations for scattering amplitudes between incoming and outgoing partial waves, which can be solved numerically. The main focus of the paper is the analytic determination of the scattering amplitude in two limits, the small flux limit and the limit of small vortex separation. In the latter limit the dominant contribution comes from the S-wave amplitude. Calculating it, however, still requires solving an infinite system of equations, which is achieved by the Riemann-Hilbert method. The results agree well with the numerical calculations

Efficient Volumetric Method of Moments for Modeling Plasmonic Thin-Film Solar Cells with Periodic Structures

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) support localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs), which enable to concentrate sunlight at the active layer of solar cells. However, full-wave modeling of the plasmonic solar cells faces great challenges in terms of huge computational workload and bad matrix condition. It is tremendously difficult to accurately and efficiently simulate near-field multiple scattering effects from plasmonic NPs embedded into solar cells. In this work, a preconditioned volume integral equation (VIE) is proposed to model plasmonic organic solar cells (OSCs). The diagonal block preconditioner is applied to different material domains of the device structure. As a result, better convergence and higher computing efficiency are achieved. Moreover, the calculation is further accelerated by two-dimensional periodic Green's functions. Using the proposed method, the dependences of optical absorption on the wavelengths and incident angles are investigated. Angular responses of the plasmonic OSCs show the super-Lambertian absorption on the plasmon resonance but near-Lambertian absorption off the plasmon resonance. The volumetric method of moments and explored physical understanding are of great help to investigate the optical responses of OSCs.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Embedding-based Scientific Literature Discovery in a Text Editor Application

Each claim in a research paper requires all relevant prior knowledge to be discovered, assimilated, and appropriately cited. However, despite the availability of powerful search engines and sophisticated text editing software, discovering relevant papers and integrating the knowledge into a manuscript remain complex tasks associated with high cognitive load. To define comprehensive search queries requires strong motivation from authors, irrespective of their familiarity with the research field. Moreover, switching between independent applications for literature discovery, bibliography management, reading papers, and writing text burdens authors further and interrupts their creative process. Here, we present a web application that combines text editing and literature discovery in an interactive user interface. The application is equipped with a search engine that couples Boolean keyword filtering with nearest neighbor search over text embeddings, providing a discovery experience tuned to an author's manuscript and his interests. Our application aims to take a step towards more enjoyable and effortless academic writing. The demo of the application (https://SciEditorDemo2020.herokuapp.com/) and a short video tutorial (https://youtu.be/pkdVU60IcRc) are available online