Molecular Structure Study on the Polyelectrolyte Properties of Actin Filaments

An accurate characterization of the polyelectrolyte properties of actin filaments might provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms governing the intracellular ionic wave packet propagation in neurons. Infinitely long cylindrical models for actin filaments and approximate electrochemical theories for the electrolyte solutions were recently used to characterize these properties in in-vitro and intracellular conditions. This article uses a molecular structure model for actin filaments to investigate the impact of roughness and finite size on the mean electrical potential, ionic density distributions, currents, and conductivities. We solved the electrochemical theories numerically without further approximations. Our findings bring new insights into the electrochemical interactions between a filament′s irregular surface charge density and the surrounding medium. The irregular shape of the filament structure model generated pockets, or hot spots, where the current density reached higher or lower magnitudes than those in neighboring areas throughout the filament surface. It also revealed the formation of a well-defined asymmetric electrical double layer with a thickness larger than that commonly used for symmetric models.

Elastomeric Composites Surface Structure Study by Scanning Electron and Atomic Force Microscopy

New elastomeric composites were synthesized with filler particles from rice husk products both in micro and sub-micron sizes. The obtained composites surface structure was investigated by scanning electron and atomic force microscopy. The application as a prospective strengthening sub-micron sizes filler for the composite complexes creation with high elastic and strength properties have been shown.

An Effectively Dynamic Path Optimization Approach for the Tree Skeleton Extraction from Portable Laser Scanning Point Clouds

One key step to the tree structure study is skeleton processing. Although there are lots of extraction approaches, the existing methods have paid less attention to extraction effectiveness, which highly use redundant points to formulate the skeleton and bring difficulties to the subsequent 3D modeling. This work proposes a four-step framework for the purpose of skeleton extraction. Firstly, candidate skeleton points are filtered from input data based on the spatial slice projection and grouped using the Euclidean distance analysis. Secondly, a key dynamic path optimization step is used to formulate a tree skeleton using the candidate point information. Thirdly, the optimized path is filled by interpolating points to achieve complete skeletons. Finally, short skeletons are removed based on the distance between branching points and ending points, and then, the extraction skeletons are smoothed for improving the visual quality. Our main contribution lies in that we find the global minimization cost path from every point to the root using a novel energy function. The formulated objective function contains a data term to constrain the distance between points and paths, and a smoothness term to constrain the direction continuities. Experimental scenes include three different types of trees, and input point clouds are collected by a portable laser scanning system. Skeleton extraction results demonstrate that we achieved completeness and correctness of 81.10% and 99.21%. respectively. Besides, our effectiveness is up to 79.26%, which uses only 5.82% of the input tree points in the skeleton representation, showing a promising effective solution for the tree skeleton and structure study.

The social odor scale: Development and initial validation of a new scale for the assessment of social odor awareness

The degree of attention individuals pay to olfactory cues (called odor awareness) influences the role of odors in everyday life. Particularly, odors produced by the human body (i.e., social odors) are able to carry a wide variety of information and to elicit a broad spectrum of emotional reactions, making them essential in interpersonal relationships. Hence, despite the assessment of awareness toward social odors is crucial, a proper tool is still lacking. Here, we designed and initially validated the Social Odor Scale (SOS), a 12-item scale designed to measure the individual differences in awareness towards different social odors. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA; KMO test: MSA = 0.78; Bartlett’s test: χ2(78) = 631.34, p < 0.001; Chi-squared test: χ2(42) = 71.84, p = 0.003) suggests that the three factors structure was the model that best fit with the Italian version of the scale. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supports a second-order model with one higher-order factor representing social odor awareness in general and three lower-order factors representing familiar, romantic partner, and stranger social odors. The final version of the scale presented a good fit (RMSEA = 0.012, SRMR = 0.069, CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.997). In Study 2, CFA was performed in the German version of the scale confirming the validity of scale structure. Study 3 and 4 revealed that SOS total score and its subscales were positively correlated with other validated olfactory scales, but not with olfactory abilities. Moreover, SOS was found to be related to the gender of the participants: women reported to be more aware to social odors and, specifically, to familiar social odors than men. Overall, the results indicated that SOS is a valid and reliable instrument to assess awareness toward social odors in everyday life.

Magnetic structure study of the sawtooth chain antiferromagnet $$\hbox {Fe}_2\hbox {Se}_2\hbox {O}_7$$

A magnetic structure of the sawtooth-chain antiferromagnet $$\hbox {Fe}_2\hbox {Se}_2\hbox {O}_7$$ Fe 2 Se 2 O 7 was investigated by magnetization measurements, single crystalline and powder neutron diffraction experiments, and a further analysis on the Mössbauer spectra. These experiments revealed a nearly collinear antiferromagnetic structure with magnetic moments aligned along the b-axis, indicating dominant antiferromagnetic exchanges between Fe(1)–Fe(2) and Fe(2)–Fe(3) sites. The magnon dispersion relation derived from the linear spin wave approximation suggests the possible flat band nature of magnons.

Syntheses, Structures and Magnetic Properties of M2 (M = Fe, Co) Complexes with N6 Coordination Environment: Field-Induced Slow Magnetic Relaxation in Co2

Two dinuclear complexes [M2(H2L)2](ClO4)4·2MeCN (M = Co for Co2 and Fe for Fe2) were synthesized using a symmetric hydrazone ligand with the metal ions in an N6 coordination environment. The crystal structures and magnetic properties were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The crystal structure study revealed that the spin centers were all in the high-spin state with a distorted octahedron (Oh) geometry. Dynamic magnetic properties measurements revealed that complex Co2 exhibited field-induced single-molecule magnet properties with two-step relaxation in which the fast relaxation path was from QTM and the slow relaxation path from the thermal relaxation under an applied field.

On the Rural Electric Networks Reliability Level Issue

The structure study, condition and 10 kV electric networks reliability level in the Irkutsk region for the period from 2016 to 2020 is carried out. The analysis is based on real data on the studied electric networks published in the open press. The Interactive Matlab system libraries and interfaces were used to calculate and analyze the studied indicator. The considered electric networks structure has investigated, algorithms and computer programs for the Matlab graphic editor are compiled with the help which changes time diagrams in the failures number, the interruptions time and the under-output electricity amount for each year months are constructed. The year months in which the highest damage occurs were determined. The electrical networks wear is considered, as well as the repair plan implementation for the main equipment. The reliability level according to the established indicators has analyzed, the main reasons for equipment failure are considered. The characteristics of improving considered electrical networks functioning are presented. Based on the conducted studies, it was found that the most damaged the considered overhead lines elements are: wires, supports, insulators, and switching devices. The characteristic reasons that lead to their damage are: wind load, damage to switching devices. The greatest damage is the Angarsky and Irkutsky branches networks characteristic (the average annual value all failures are 26.4 and 23.9%). The Kirensky and Cheremkhovsky branches networks are the least damaged annually. The obtained data probabilistic-statistical and correlation analysis, as well as the emergency outages risks analysis for the future, taking into account the seasonal component, is carried out.

Author’s Digression in the English Literary Text Space: Types of Cohesion

One of the most critical problems of the Linguistics of text is the structure study of the literary text, principles of its organization following the rules of the compositions that suggest splitting the linguistic work into the interconnected parts. In this regard, it is necessary to research the individual compositional and significant elements of the text and their role in forming the whole work. The paper focuses on revealing structural and syntactic properties of the author’s digressions, namely, detecting such concepts as integration/non-integration of the author’s digressions in the English literary prose. Integrated and non-integrated types of author’s digressions into the academic space of the text have been distinguished based on interpretative-textual and compositional analysis. The analysis of the text-forming function of the author’s digression contributed to defining the features of the cohesion of the literary text and included in its elements. The analysis results show that the author’s digressions can be both integrated and non-integrated. Non-integration of the author’s digression lies in their composition-semantic independence, and integrated author’s digressions are the ones that the author weaves into the text with different types of cohesion. This research promotes the studies of the cognitive aspect of the author’s digression in the different genres literary texts of English and American prose.