The Effects of Concentration Gradient of Nitrogen Compounds on the Ammonium-nitrogen and Nitrate-nitrogen Fluxes at Sediment-Water Interface

The incubation experiments focused on altering concentration gradients of nitrogen between sediment and overlying water to examine the diffusion flux of ammonium-nitrogen (NH4+) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-) at sediment-water interface. In this study, the diffusion flux can be estimated based on calculating the average of the net change rate of nutrient concentrations in the overlying water. For the incubation experiment of different TN concentrations in the sediment, the results showed that the diffusion flux of ammonia at sediment-water interface is -52.57~84.57 mg·m-2·d-1, and for nitrate diffusion flux, the changing range during the incubation experiment is -110.13~143.25 mg·m-2·d-1. For the incubation experiment of different nitrogen concentrations in the overlying water, the results of NH4+-N diffusion flux in L, M, H treatment were 3.37, -4.94, -3.84 mg·m-2·d-1, respectively. And the average diffusion flux of nitrate in L (0 mg NO3--N, 0 mg NH4+-N), M (0.5 mg NO3--N, 1.5 mg NH4+-N) and H (1 mg NO3--N, 2.5 mg NH4+-N) treatment were 12.30, 10.39 and 7.11 mg·m-2·d-1. Results highlighted that concentrations gradient of nutrients were indeed an important factor affecting the diffusion flux at sediment-water interface. In addition, the diffusion of nutrients at sediment-water interface in aquatic ecosystem is not only controlled by concentration gradients, some other factors such as incoming water, hydrodynamics, dissolved oxygen content, sediment structure, biological disturbance, horizontal migration and diffusion of nutrients and turbulent diffusion caused by wind and wave, are equally important.

Angle-dependent effects in Dynamic Light Scattering measurements of polydisperse particles

Dynamic light scattering (DLS) is widely used for analyzing biological polymers and colloids. Its application to nanoparticles in medicine is becoming increasingly important with the recent emergence of prominent lipid nanoparticle-(LNP)based products, such as the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines from Pfizer, Inc.-BioNTech (BNT162b2) and Moderna, Inc. (mRNA-1273). DLS plays an important role in the characterization and quality control of nanoparticle-based therapeutics and vaccines. However, most DLS instruments have a single detection angle ,and the amplitude of the scattering vector, q, varies among them according to the relationship q=(n/sin(/2) where 0 is the laser wavelength. Results for identical, polydisperse samples among instruments of varying q yield different hydrodynamic diameters, because, as particles become larger they scatter less light at higher angles, so that higher-q instruments will under-sample large particles in polydisperse populations, and report higher z-average diffusion coefficients, and hence smaller effective hydrodynamic diameters than lower-q instruments. As particle size reaches the Mie regime the scattering envelope manifests angular maxima and minima, and the monotonic decrease of average size versus q is lost. This work examines results for different q-value instruments, using mixtures of monodisperse latex sphere standards, for which experimental measurements agree well with computations, and also polydisperse solutions of LNP, for which results follow expected trends. Mie effects on broad unimodal populations are also considered. There is no way to predict results between two instruments with different q for samples of unknown particle size distributions.

Effect of Modification on the Fluid Diffusion Coefficient in Silica Nanochannels

The diffusion behavior of fluid water in nanochannels with hydroxylation of silica gel and silanization of different modified chain lengths was simulated by the equilibrium molecular dynamics method. The diffusion coefficient of fluid water was calculated by the Einstein method and the Green–Kubo method, so as to analyze the change rule between the modification degree of nanochannels and the diffusion coefficient of fluid water. The results showed that the diffusion coefficient of fluid water increased with the length of the modified chain. The average diffusion coefficient of fluid water in the hydroxylated nanochannels was 8.01% of the bulk water diffusion coefficient, and the diffusion coefficients of fluid water in the –(CH2)3CH3, –(CH2)7CH3, and –(CH2)11CH3 nanochannels were 44.10%, 49.72%, and 53.80% of the diffusion coefficients of bulk water, respectively. In the above four wall characteristic models, the diffusion coefficients in the z direction were smaller than those in the other directions. However, with an increase in the silylation degree, the increased self-diffusion coefficient due to the surface effect could basically offset the decreased self-diffusion coefficient owing to the scale effect. In the four nanochannels, when the local diffusion coefficient of fluid water was in the range of 8 Å close to the wall, Dz was greater than Dxy, and beyond the range of 8 Å of the wall, the Dz was smaller than Dxy.

The nature of the variability of wave particle interactions in the inner magnetosphere and consequences for diffusion models

<p>It is important to understand the variability of plasma processes across many different timescales in order to successfully model plasma in the inner magnetosphere. In this presentation, we focus on the interplay between the variability cold plasmaspheric plasma, whistler-mode wave activity, and the efficacy of wave-particle interactions in the inner magnetosphere. We use in-situ observations to quantify the amount and timescales of variability in pitch-angle diffusion due to plasmaspheric hiss in Earth’s inner magnetosphere, and suggest reasons for the variability. We then use a stochastic parameterization scheme to investigate the consequences of that variability in a numerical diffusion model. The results from the stochastic parameterization are contrasted with the standard approach of constructing averaged diffusion coefficients. We demonstrate that even when the average diffusion rates are the same, different timescales of variability in the wave-particle interactions lead to different end results in numerical diffusion models. We discuss the implications of our results for the modelling of wave-particle interactions in magnetospheres, and suggest quantifications that are vital for accurate modelling.</p>

Quantitative Analysis Method of Ophthalmic Microbial Membrane Function Based on Microbiological Analysis

Ophthalmic microbial eye membrane is a kind of membrane complex with highly complex structure, but it also has the therapeutic effect of bacteria that can produce microbial eye membrane. Nowadays, there is no effective method to analyze the microbial membrane. Therefore, a quantitative analysis method of ophthalmic microbial membrane function based on microbiological analysis is proposed. The biomass per unit area, substrate coverage and average thickness of the biofilm were quantitatively analyzed with Staphylococcus as material and microbiological analysis method. The structure indexes such as biomass, average thickness and average diffusion distance increased significantly, indicating the transformation process of microbial membrane from occurrence to maturity. Microbiological analysis method can effectively evaluate the occurrence, development and maturation of microbial membrane, and has potential value in studying the theoretical mechanism of microbial membrane formation.

Alternative Microstructural Measures to Complement Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Migraine Studies with Standard MRI Acquisition

The white matter state in migraine has been investigated using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures, but results using this technique are conflicting. To overcome DTI measures, we employed ensemble average diffusion propagator measures obtained with apparent measures using reduced acquisitions (AMURA). The AMURA measures were return-to-axis (RTAP), return-to-origin (RTOP) and return-to-plane probabilities (RTPP). Tract-based spatial statistics was used to compare fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity and radial diffusivity from DTI, and RTAP, RTOP and RTPP, between healthy controls, episodic migraine and chronic migraine patients. Fifty healthy controls, 54 patients with episodic migraine and 56 with chronic migraine were assessed. Significant differences were found between both types of migraine, with lower axial diffusivity values in 38 white matter regions and higher RTOP values in the middle cerebellar peduncle in patients with a chronic migraine (p < 0.05 family-wise error corrected). Significantly lower RTPP values were found in episodic migraine patients compared to healthy controls in 24 white matter regions (p < 0.05 family-wise error corrected), finding no significant differences using DTI measures. The white matter microstructure is altered in a migraine, and in chronic compared to episodic migraine. AMURA can provide additional results with respect to DTI to uncover white matter alterations in migraine.

Single molecule imaging reveals cFos is capable of binding to and diffusing on DNA tightropes independently of cJun

AP-1 proteins are members of the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) protein family of dimeric transcription factors, responsible for controlling many integral cellular processes. These proteins form dimers with each other, and their aberrant expression can lead to a number of cancer types. The oncogenic transcription factor AP-1 binds its target TRE site (5’TCA[G/C]TGA), however the physical mechanism of how this is achieved is not understood. Such an understanding is essential to know how these proteins function, and could offer the potential to uncover new drug targets. The archetypal AP-1 complex is formed by cFos and cJun, which heterodimerise via their bZIP domains. Here, we set out to investigate how these proteins interact with DNA using a real-time single molecule fluorescence imaging approach. Using DNA tightropes as a substrate, we determine that the AP-1 bZIP dimers cJun:cFos and cJun:cJun rapidly scan DNA using a 1D diffusional search with an average diffusion constant of 0.14 µm2s-1 and 0.26 µm2s-1 respectively. Remarkably, we also found that cFos was able to bind to and diffuse on DNA (0.29 µm2s-1) both as a monomer and homodimer. Periods of diffusion were punctuated by pauses, suggesting a mechanism for how AP-1 may rapidly find its target sites on DNA. Taken together the results we have obtained indicate a considerably more complex and graded interaction between cFos, cJun and DNA than has been reported previously.

Analysis of Transport Properties of the Randomly Moving Electrons in Metals

In this critical analysis on the base of randomly moving (RM) electrons, presented the resistivity dependence on temperature for elemental metals both above and below the Debye’s temperatures. There also are presented the general relationships for estimation of the average diffusion coefficient, the average velocity, mean free path and average relaxation time of RM electrons on the Fermi surface at mentioned temperature range. It is shown that the scattering of RM electrons mainly is due to electronic defects associated with distortion of the periodic potential distribution in the periodic lattice, and accounting the exchange of the thermal energies between phonon and RM electron. The calculation results of resistivity dependence on temperature in the temperature range from 1 K to 900 K are demonstrated for Au and W and compared with the experimental data. There also is presented the simple method for determination of the basic kinetic characteristic dependences on temperature only from the resistivity dependence on temperature. It is at first time determined for Au and W the temperature dependences of the mean free path, average diffusion coefficient, average relaxation time of RM electrons from 1 K to 900 K.

Apparent Propagator Anisotropy from reduced Diffusion MRI acquisitions

The Propagator Anisotropy (PA) is a measurement of the orientational variability inside a tissue estimated from diffusion MRI using the Ensemble Average diffusion Propagator (EAP). It is based on the quantification of the angular difference between the propagator in a specific voxel and its isotropic counterpart. The PA has shown the ability to reveal microstructural information of interest and meaningful descriptive maps inside the white matter. However, the use of PA is not generalized among the clinical community, due to the great amount of data needed for its calculation, together with the associated long processing times. In order to calculate the PA, the EAP must also be properly estimated. This task would require a dense sampling of the Cartesian q-space. Alternatively, more efficient techniques have been proposed in the last decade. Even so, all of them imply acquiring a large number of diffusion gradients with different b-values and long processing times.In this work, we propose an alternative implementation to drastically reduce the number of samples needed, as well as boosting the estimation procedure. We avoid the calculation of the whole EAP by assuming that the diffusion anisotropy is roughly independent from the radial direction. With such an assumption, we achieve a closed-form expression for a measure similar to the PA but using information from one single shell: the Apparent Propagator Anisotropy (APA). The new measure remains compatible with standard acquisition protocols commonly used for HARDI (based on just one b-value). The intention of the APA is not to exactly replicate the PA but inferring microstructural information with comparable discrimination power as the PA but using a reduced amount of data.We report extensive results showing that the proposed measures present a robust behavior in clinical studies and they are computationally efficient and robust when compared with PA and other anisotropy measures.