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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Nanoscale Hybrid Electrolytes With Viscosity Controlled Using Ionic Stimulus For Electrochemical Energy Conversion And Storage, Sara T. Hamilton, Tony G. Feric, Sahana Bhattacharyya, Nelly M. Cantillo, Steven G. Greenbaum, Thomas A. Zawodzinski, Ah-Hyung Alissa Park Mar 2022

Nanoscale Hybrid Electrolytes With Viscosity Controlled Using Ionic Stimulus For Electrochemical Energy Conversion And Storage, Sara T. Hamilton, Tony G. Feric, Sahana Bhattacharyya, Nelly M. Cantillo, Steven G. Greenbaum, Thomas A. Zawodzinski, Ah-Hyung Alissa Park

Publications and Research

As renewable energy is rapidly integrated into the grid, the challenge has become storing intermittent renewable electricity. Technologies including flow batteries and CO 2 conversion to dense energy carriers are promising storage options for renewable electricity. To achieve this technological advancement, the development of next generation electrolyte materials that can increase the energy density of flow batteries and combine CO 2 capture and conversion is desired. Liquid-like nanoparticle organic hybrid materials (NOHMs) composed of an inorganic core with a tethered polymeric canopy (e.g., polyetheramine (HPE)) have a capability to bind chemical species of interest including CO 2 and redox-active species. …


Protein Motifs For Proton Transfers That Build The Transmembrane Proton Gradient, Divya Kaur, Umesh Khaniya, Yingying Zhang, M. R. Gunner Jun 2021

Protein Motifs For Proton Transfers That Build The Transmembrane Proton Gradient, Divya Kaur, Umesh Khaniya, Yingying Zhang, M. R. Gunner

Publications and Research

Biological membranes are barriers to polar molecules, so membrane embedded proteins control the transfers between cellular compartments. Protein controlled transport moves substrates and activates cellular signaling cascades. In addition, the electrochemical gradient across mitochondrial, bacterial and chloroplast membranes, is a key source of stored cellular energy. This is generated by electron, proton and ion transfers through proteins. The gradient is used to fuel ATP synthesis and to drive active transport. Here the mechanisms by which protons move into the buried active sites of Photosystem II (PSII), bacterial RCs (bRCs) and through the proton pumps, Bacteriorhodopsin (bR), Complex I and Cytochrome …


Alternative View Of Oxygen Reduction On Porous Carbon Electrocatalysts: The Substance Of Complex Oxygen-Surface Interactions, Giacomo De Falco, Marc Florent, Jacek Jagiello, Yongqiang Cheng, Luke L. Daemen, Anibal J. Ramirez-Cuesta, Teresa J. Bandosz Mar 2021

Alternative View Of Oxygen Reduction On Porous Carbon Electrocatalysts: The Substance Of Complex Oxygen-Surface Interactions, Giacomo De Falco, Marc Florent, Jacek Jagiello, Yongqiang Cheng, Luke L. Daemen, Anibal J. Ramirez-Cuesta, Teresa J. Bandosz

Publications and Research

Electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an important energy-related process requiring alternative catalysts to expensive platinum-based ones. Although recently some advancements in carbon catalysts have been reported, there is still a lack of understanding which surface features might enhance their efficiency for ORR. Through a detailed study of oxygen adsorption on carbon molecular sieves and using inelastic neutron scattering, we demonstrated here that the extent of oxygen adsorption/interactions with surface is an important parameter affecting ORR. It was found that both the strength of O2 physical adsorption in small pores and its specific interactions with surface ether functionalities in the …


Circuits With Broken Fibration Symmetries Perform Core Logic Computations In Biological Networks, Ian Leifer, Flaviano Morone, Saulo D. S. Reis, José S. Andrade Jr., Mariano Sigman, Hernán A. Makse Jun 2020

Circuits With Broken Fibration Symmetries Perform Core Logic Computations In Biological Networks, Ian Leifer, Flaviano Morone, Saulo D. S. Reis, José S. Andrade Jr., Mariano Sigman, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

We show that logic computational circuits in gene regulatory networks arise from a fibration symmetry breaking in the network structure. From this idea we implement a constructive procedure that reveals a hierarchy of genetic circuits, ubiquitous across species, that are surprising analogues to the emblematic circuits of solid-state electronics: starting from the transistor and progressing to ring oscillators, current-mirror circuits to toggle switches and flip-flops. These canonical variants serve fundamental operations of synchronization and clocks (in their symmetric states) and memory storage (in their broken symmetry states). These conclusions introduce a theoretically principled strategy to search for computational building blocks …


Fibration Symmetries Uncover The Building Blocks Of Biological Networks, Flaviano Morone, Ian Leifer, Hernán A. Makse Mar 2020

Fibration Symmetries Uncover The Building Blocks Of Biological Networks, Flaviano Morone, Ian Leifer, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

A major ambition of systems science is to uncover the building blocks of any biological network to decipher how cellular function emerges from their interactions. Here, we introduce a graph representation of the information flow in these networks as a set of input trees, one for each node, which contains all pathways along which information can be transmitted in the network. In this representation, we find remarkable symmetries in the input trees that deconstruct the network into functional building blocks called fibers. Nodes in a fiber have isomorphic input trees and thus process equivalent dynamics and synchronize their activity. Each …


Stochastic Resonance In A Proton Pumping Complex I Of Mitochondria Membranes, Davneet Kaur, Ilan Filonenko, Lev Mourokh, Cornelius Fendler, Robert H. Blick Sep 2017

Stochastic Resonance In A Proton Pumping Complex I Of Mitochondria Membranes, Davneet Kaur, Ilan Filonenko, Lev Mourokh, Cornelius Fendler, Robert H. Blick

Publications and Research

We make use of the physical mechanism of proton pumping in the so-called Complex I within mitochondria membranes. Our model is based on sequential charge transfer assisted by conformational changes which facilitate the indirect electron-proton coupling. The equations of motion for the proton operators are derived and solved numerically in combination with the phenomenological Langevin equation describing the periodic conformational changes. We show that with an appropriate set of parameters, protons can be transferred against an applied voltage. In addition, we demonstrate that only the joint action of the periodic energy modulation and thermal noise leads to efficient uphill proton …


Rules And Mechanisms For Efficient Two-Stage Learning In Neural Circuits, Tiberiu Teşileanu, Bence Ölveczky, Vijay Balasubramanian Jan 2017

Rules And Mechanisms For Efficient Two-Stage Learning In Neural Circuits, Tiberiu Teşileanu, Bence Ölveczky, Vijay Balasubramanian

Publications and Research

Trial-and-error learning requires evaluating variable actions and reinforcing successful variants. In songbirds, vocal exploration is induced by LMAN, the output of a basal ganglia-related circuit that also contributes a corrective bias to the vocal output. This bias is gradually consolidated in RA, a motor cortex analogue downstream of LMAN. We develop a new model of such two-stage learning. Using stochastic gradient descent, we derive how the activity in ‘tutor’ circuits (e.g., LMAN) should match plasticity mechanisms in ‘student’ circuits (e.g., RA) to achieve efficient learning. We further describe a reinforcement learning framework through which the tutor can build its teaching …


A Principle Of Economy Predicts The Functional Architecture Of Grid Cells, Xue-Xin Wei, Jason Prentice, Vijay Balasubramanian Jan 2015

A Principle Of Economy Predicts The Functional Architecture Of Grid Cells, Xue-Xin Wei, Jason Prentice, Vijay Balasubramanian

Publications and Research

Grid cells in the brain respond when an animal occupies a periodic lattice of ‘grid fields’ during navigation. Grids are organized in modules with different periodicity. We propose that the grid system implements a hierarchical code for space that economizes the number of neurons required to encode location with a given resolution across a range equal to the largest period. This theory predicts that (i) grid fields should lie on a triangular lattice, (ii) grid scales should follow a geometric progression, (iii) the ratio between adjacent grid scales should be √e for idealized neurons, and lie between 1.4 and 1.7 …


Wave Function For Harmonically Confined Electrons In Time-Dependent Electric And Magnetostatic Fields, Hong-Ming Zhu, Jin-Wang Chen, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni Jan 2014

Wave Function For Harmonically Confined Electrons In Time-Dependent Electric And Magnetostatic Fields, Hong-Ming Zhu, Jin-Wang Chen, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni

Publications and Research

We derive via the interaction “representation” the many-body wave function for harmonically confined electrons in the presence of a magnetostatic field and perturbed by a spatially homogeneous time-dependent electric field—the Generalized Kohn Theorem (GKT) wave function. In the absence of the harmonic confinement – the uniform electron gas – the GKT wave function reduces to the Kohn Theorem wave function. Without the magnetostatic field, the GKTwave function is the Harmonic Potential Theorem wave function. We further prove the validity of the connection between the GKT wave function derived and the system in an accelerated frame of reference. Finally, we provide …


Wave Function For Time-Dependent Harmonically Confined Electrons In A Time-Dependent Electric Field, Yu-Qi Li, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni Sep 2013

Wave Function For Time-Dependent Harmonically Confined Electrons In A Time-Dependent Electric Field, Yu-Qi Li, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni

Publications and Research

The many-body wave function of a system of interacting particles confined by a time-dependent harmonic potential and perturbed by a time-dependent spatially homogeneous electric field is derived via the Feynman path-integral method. The wave function is comprised of a phase factor times the solution to the unperturbed time-dependent Schrödinger equation with the latter being translated by a time-dependent value that satisfies the classical driven equation of motion. The wave function reduces to that of the Harmonic Potential Theorem wave function for the case of the time-independent harmonic confining potential.