The depolarized Raman spectra can be used as a probe to reveal the presence of non-network formers in oxide glasses. Two spectral responses involving the cations are observed below 400 cm−1 in more than 30 compositions of binary and ternary aluminosilicates. One of the two bands arises solely from cations close to non-bridging oxygen providing thereby a simple test for qualifying the polymerization state of the glass. The second feature involves all cations whatever their role in the glass and is found to be twofold: one contribution arises from cations charge compensating (AlO4)− tetrahedra and the other one from network modifier cations. These results confirm the net vibrational contrast of cations depending on their structural surrounding.

The cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells plays several crucial roles. In terms of intracellular transport, motor proteins use the cytoskeletal filaments as a backbone along which they can actively transport biological cargos such as vesicles carrying biochemical reactants. Crossings between such filaments constitute a key element, as they may serve to alter the destination of such payload. Although motor proteins are known to display a rich behaviour at such crossings, the latter have so far only been modelled as simple branching points. Here we explore a model for a crossing between two microtubules which retains the individual tracks consisting of protofilaments, and we construct a schematic representation of the transport paths. We study collective transport exemplified by the Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process (TASEP), and provide a full analysis of the transport features and the associated phase diagram, by a generic mean-field approach which we confirm through particle-based stochastic simulations. In particular we show that transport through such a compound crossing cannot be approximated from a coarse-grained structure with a simple branching point. Instead, it gives rise to entirely new and counterintuitive features: the fundamental current-density relation for traffic flow is no longer a single-valued function, and it furthermore differs according to whether it is observed upstream or downstream from the crossing. We argue that these novel features may be directly relevant for interpreting experimental measurements.

The cellular cytoplasm is organized into compartments. Phase separation is a simple manner to create membraneless compartments in order to confine and localize particles like proteins. In many cases, these particles are bound to fluctuating polymers like DNA or RNA. We propose a general theoretical framework for such polymer-bound particles and derive an effective 1D lattice gas model with both nearest-neighbor and emergent long-range interactions arising from looped configurations of the fluctuating polymer. We argue that 1D phase transitions exist in such systems for both Gaussian and self-avoiding polymers and, using a variational method that goes beyond mean-field theory, we obtain the complete mean occupation-temperature phase diagram. To illustrate this model, we apply it to the biologically relevant case of ParABS, a prevalent bacterial DNA segregation system.

Legătura dintre pasta de ciment și agregat influențează durabilitatea betonului supus levigării, din cauza existenței unei anumite zone mai vulnerabile în pasta de ciment, adiacentă agregatelor-Zona de Tranziție Inter facială (ITZ). Pentru a evalua comportamentul mecanic al betonului la scara locală a legăturii pastă de ciment/agregat, s-au efectuat încercări de întindere pe eșantioane din pastă de ciment și compozite pastă/agregat. Relația dintre degradarea chimică și proprietățile mecanice (modulul lui Young și rezistența la întindere) a fost exprimată prin noțiunea de degradare chimică. Alte aspecte discutate, cum ar fi cinetica de levigare, dizolvarea chimică și fisurarea au fost evocate pentru a evidenția originea pierderii proprietăților mecanice ale pastei de ciment și a legăturii pastă / ciment. În ceea ce privește legătura pastă/agregat, după o dizolvare importantă în cadrul ITZ, se produce treptat o pierdere totală de aderență între pasta de ciment și agregat. În ceea ce privește pasta de ciment, aceasta suferă o scădere mai mică a modulului lui Young și a rezistenței la întindere în comparație cu compozitele, fiind de asemenea mai puțin afectată de fisurare. În general, acest studiu evidențiază mecanismul prin care comportamentele mecanice ale pastei de ciment și ale legăturii de pastă de ciment / agregate sunt afectate de levigare.

Genetic programs operating in a history-dependent fashion are ubiquitous in nature and govern sophisticated processes such as development and differentiation. The ability to systematically and predictably encode such programs would advance the engineering of synthetic organisms and ecosystems with rich signal processing abilities. Here we implement robust, scalable history-dependent programs by distributing the computational labor across a cellular population. Our design is based on standardized recombinase-driven DNA scaffolds expressing different genes according to the order of occurrence of inputs. These multicellular computing systems are highly modular, do not require cell-cell communication channels, and any program can be built by differential composition of strains containing well-characterized logic scaffolds. We developed automated workflows that researchers can use to streamline program design and optimization. We anticipate that the history-dependent programs presented here will support many applications using cellular populations for material engineering, biomanufacturing and healthcare.

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is attracting tremendous interest as an essential component in van der Waals heterostructures due to its ability to provide weakly interacting interfaces and because of its large bandgap. Although most of theoretical calculations yield the standard AA′ stacking for few-layer hBN, the exact determination of its structural and electronic properties remains unrevealed to date. Here, we provide the direct observation of structural and electronic transitions in few layers of isotopically pure exfoliated h11BN flakes. Our nanoscopic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements combined with density-functional theory calculations indicate that the stacking and the band structure can be strongly affected by the thickness of h11BN. Hence, we show that hBN presents an AA′ stacking in its bulk form and another more exotic stacking for three and four layers. Our findings open perspectives in understanding and controlling the stackings in hBN, which could be of great interest for optoelectronic applications.

Low-threshold lasing under pulsed optical pumping is demonstrated at room temperature for III-nitride microdisks with InGaN/GaN quantum wells on Si in the blue spectral range. Thresholds in the range of 18 kW/cm 2 have been achieved along with narrow linewidths of 0.07 nm and a large peak to background dynamic of 300. We compare this threshold range with the one that can be calculated using a rate equation model. We show that thresholds in the few kW/cm 2 range constitute the best that can be achieved with III-nitride quantum wells at room temperature. The sensitivity of lasing on the fabrication process is also discussed.