TY - JOUR AB - Motivation: The problem of model inference is of fundamental importance to systems biology. Logical models (e.g. Boolean networks; BNs) represent a computationally attractive approach capable of handling large biological networks. The models are typically inferred from experimental data. However, even with a substantial amount of experimental data supported by some prior knowledge, existing inference methods often focus on a small sample of admissible candidate models only. Results: We propose Boolean network sketches as a new formal instrument for the inference of Boolean networks. A sketch integrates (typically partial) knowledge about the network’s topology and the update logic (obtained through, e.g. a biological knowledge base or a literature search), as well as further assumptions about the properties of the network’s transitions (e.g. the form of its attractor landscape), and additional restrictions on the model dynamics given by the measured experimental data. Our new BNs inference algorithm starts with an ‘initial’ sketch, which is extended by adding restrictions representing experimental data to a ‘data-informed’ sketch and subsequently computes all BNs consistent with the data-informed sketch. Our algorithm is based on a symbolic representation and coloured model-checking. Our approach is unique in its ability to cover a broad spectrum of knowledge and efficiently produce a compact representation of all inferred BNs. We evaluate the method on a non-trivial collection of real-world and simulated data. AU - Beneš, Nikola AU - Brim, Luboš AU - Huvar, Ondřej AU - Pastva, Samuel AU - Šafránek, David ID - 12876 IS - 4 JF - Bioinformatics TI - Boolean network sketches: A unifying framework for logical model inference VL - 39 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Peripheral heterochromatin positioning depends on nuclear envelope associated proteins and repressive histone modifications. Here we show that overexpression (OE) of Lamin B1 (LmnB1) leads to the redistribution of peripheral heterochromatin into heterochromatic foci within the nucleoplasm. These changes represent a perturbation of heterochromatin binding at the nuclear periphery (NP) through a mechanism independent from altering other heterochromatin anchors or histone post-translational modifications. We further show that LmnB1 OE alters gene expression. These changes do not correlate with different levels of H3K9me3, but a significant number of the misregulated genes were likely mislocalized away from the NP upon LmnB1 OE. We also observed an enrichment of developmental processes amongst the upregulated genes. ~74% of these genes were normally repressed in our cell type, suggesting that LmnB1 OE promotes gene de-repression. This demonstrates a broader consequence of LmnB1 OE on cell fate, and highlights the importance of maintaining proper levels of LmnB1. AU - Kaneshiro, Jeanae M. AU - Capitanio, Juliana S. AU - Hetzer, Martin W ID - 12880 IS - 1 JF - Nucleus SN - 1949-1034 TI - Lamin B1 overexpression alters chromatin organization and gene expression VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We numerically study two methods of measuring tunneling times using a quantum clock. In the conventional method using the Larmor clock, we show that the Larmor tunneling time can be shorter for higher tunneling barriers. In the second method, we study the probability of a spin-flip of a particle when it is transmitted through a potential barrier including a spatially rotating field interacting with its spin. According to the adiabatic theorem, the probability depends on the velocity of the particle inside the barrier. It is numerically observed that the probability increases for higher barriers, which is consistent with the result obtained by the Larmor clock. By comparing outcomes for different initial spin states, we suggest that one of the main causes of the apparent decrease in the tunneling time can be the filtering effect occurring at the end of the barrier. AU - Suzuki, Fumika AU - Unruh, William G. ID - 12914 IS - 4 JF - Physical Review A SN - 2469-9926 TI - Numerical quantum clock simulations for measuring tunneling times VL - 107 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The coexistence of gate-tunable superconducting, magnetic and topological orders in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene provides opportunities for the creation of hybrid Josephson junctions. Here we report the fabrication of gate-defined symmetry-broken Josephson junctions in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, where the weak link is gate-tuned close to the correlated insulator state with a moiré filling factor of υ = −2. We observe a phase-shifted and asymmetric Fraunhofer pattern with a pronounced magnetic hysteresis. Our theoretical calculations of the junction weak link—with valley polarization and orbital magnetization—explain most of these unconventional features. The effects persist up to the critical temperature of 3.5 K, with magnetic hysteresis observed below 800 mK. We show how the combination of magnetization and its current-induced magnetization switching allows us to realise a programmable zero-field superconducting diode. Our results represent a major advance towards the creation of future superconducting quantum electronic devices. AU - Díez-Mérida, J. AU - Díez-Carlón, A. AU - Yang, S. Y. AU - Xie, Y. M. AU - Gao, X. J. AU - Senior, Jorden L AU - Watanabe, K. AU - Taniguchi, T. AU - Lu, X. AU - Higginbotham, Andrew P AU - Law, K. T. AU - Efetov, Dmitri K. ID - 12913 JF - Nature Communications TI - Symmetry-broken Josephson junctions and superconducting diodes in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The global existence of renormalised solutions and convergence to equilibrium for reaction-diffusion systems with non-linear diffusion are investigated. The system is assumed to have quasi-positive non-linearities and to satisfy an entropy inequality. The difficulties in establishing global renormalised solutions caused by possibly degenerate diffusion are overcome by introducing a new class of weighted truncation functions. By means of the obtained global renormalised solutions, we study the large-time behaviour of complex balanced systems arising from chemical reaction network theory with non-linear diffusion. When the reaction network does not admit boundary equilibria, the complex balanced equilibrium is shown, by using the entropy method, to exponentially attract all renormalised solutions in the same compatibility class. This convergence extends even to a range of non-linear diffusion, where global existence is an open problem, yet we are able to show that solutions to approximate systems converge exponentially to equilibrium uniformly in the regularisation parameter. AU - Fellner, Klemens AU - Fischer, Julian L AU - Kniely, Michael AU - Tang, Bao Quoc ID - 10550 JF - Journal of Nonlinear Science SN - 0938-8974 TI - Global renormalised solutions and equilibration of reaction-diffusion systems with non-linear diffusion VL - 33 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We derive a weak-strong uniqueness principle for BV solutions to multiphase mean curvature flow of triple line clusters in three dimensions. Our proof is based on the explicit construction of a gradient flow calibration in the sense of the recent work of Fischer et al. (2020) for any such cluster. This extends the two-dimensional construction to the three-dimensional case of surfaces meeting along triple junctions. AU - Hensel, Sebastian AU - Laux, Tim ID - 13043 IS - 1 JF - Interfaces and Free Boundaries SN - 1463-9963 TI - Weak-strong uniqueness for the mean curvature flow of double bubbles VL - 25 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The chemical potential of adsorbed or confined fluids provides insight into their unique thermodynamic properties and determines adsorption isotherms. However, it is often difficult to compute this quantity from atomistic simulations using existing statistical mechanical methods. We introduce a computational framework that utilizes static structure factors, thermodynamic integration, and free energy perturbation for calculating the absolute chemical potential of fluids. For demonstration, we apply the method to compute the adsorption isotherms of carbon dioxide in a metal-organic framework and water in carbon nanotubes. AU - Schmid, Rochus AU - Cheng, Bingqing ID - 12912 IS - 16 JF - The Journal of Chemical Physics TI - Computing chemical potentials of adsorbed or confined fluids VL - 158 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Embroidery is a long-standing and high-quality approach to making logos and images on textiles. Nowadays, it can also be performed via automated machines that weave threads with high spatial accuracy. A characteristic feature of the appearance of the threads is a high degree of anisotropy. The anisotropic behavior is caused by depositing thin but long strings of thread. As a result, the stitched patterns convey both color and direction. Artists leverage this anisotropic behavior to enhance pure color images with textures, illusions of motion, or depth cues. However, designing colorful embroidery patterns with prescribed directionality is a challenging task, one usually requiring an expert designer. In this work, we propose an interactive algorithm that generates machine-fabricable embroidery patterns from multi-chromatic images equipped with user-specified directionality fields.We cast the problem of finding a stitching pattern into vector theory. To find a suitable stitching pattern, we extract sources and sinks from the divergence field of the vector field extracted from the input and use them to trace streamlines. We further optimize the streamlines to guarantee a smooth and connected stitching pattern. The generated patterns approximate the color distribution constrained by the directionality field. To allow for further artistic control, the trade-off between color match and directionality match can be interactively explored via an intuitive slider. We showcase our approach by fabricating several embroidery paths. AU - Liu, Zhenyuan AU - Piovarci, Michael AU - Hafner, Christian AU - Charrondiere, Raphael AU - Bickel, Bernd ID - 12972 IS - 2 JF - Computer Graphics Forum KW - embroidery KW - design KW - directionality KW - density KW - image SN - 1467-8659 TI - Directionality-aware design of embroidery patterns VL - 42 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Current methods for assessing cell proliferation in 3D scaffolds rely on changes in metabolic activity or total DNA, however, direct quantification of cell number in 3D scaffolds remains a challenge. To address this issue, we developed an unbiased stereology approach that uses systematic-random sampling and thin focal-plane optical sectioning of the scaffolds followed by estimation of total cell number (StereoCount). This approach was validated against an indirect method for measuring the total DNA (DNA content); and the Bürker counting chamber, the current reference method for quantifying cell number. We assessed the total cell number for cell seeding density (cells per unit volume) across four values and compared the methods in terms of accuracy, ease-of-use and time demands. The accuracy of StereoCount markedly outperformed the DNA content for cases with ~ 10,000 and ~ 125,000 cells/scaffold. For cases with ~ 250,000 and ~ 375,000 cells/scaffold both StereoCount and DNA content showed lower accuracy than the Bürker but did not differ from each other. In terms of ease-of-use, there was a strong advantage for the StereoCount due to output in terms of absolute cell numbers along with the possibility for an overview of cell distribution and future use of automation for high throughput analysis. Taking together, the StereoCount method is an efficient approach for direct cell quantification in 3D collagen scaffolds. Its major benefit is that automated StereoCount could accelerate research using 3D scaffolds focused on drug discovery for a wide variety of human diseases. AU - Zavadakova, Anna AU - Vistejnova, Lucie AU - Belinova, Tereza AU - Tichanek, Filip AU - Bilikova, Dagmar AU - Mouton, Peter R. ID - 13033 IS - 1 JF - Scientific Reports KW - Multidisciplinary SN - 2045-2322 TI - Novel stereological method for estimation of cell counts in 3D collagen scaffolds VL - 13 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Disulfide bond formation is fundamentally important for protein structure and constitutes a key mechanism by which cells regulate the intracellular oxidation state. Peroxiredoxins (PRDXs) eliminate reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide through a catalytic cycle of Cys oxidation and reduction. Additionally, upon Cys oxidation PRDXs undergo extensive conformational rearrangements that may underlie their presently structurally poorly defined functions as molecular chaperones. Rearrangements include high molecular-weight oligomerization, the dynamics of which are, however, poorly understood, as is the impact of disulfide bond formation on these properties. Here we show that formation of disulfide bonds along the catalytic cycle induces extensive μs time scale dynamics, as monitored by magic-angle spinning NMR of the 216 kDa-large Tsa1 decameric assembly and solution-NMR of a designed dimeric mutant. We ascribe the conformational dynamics to structural frustration, resulting from conflicts between the disulfide-constrained reduction of mobility and the desire to fulfill other favorable contacts. AU - Troussicot, Laura AU - Vallet, Alicia AU - Molin, Mikael AU - Burmann, Björn M. AU - Schanda, Paul ID - 13095 IS - 19 JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society SN - 0002-7863 TI - Disulfide-bond-induced structural frustration and dynamic disorder in a peroxiredoxin from MAS NMR VL - 145 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Let Lc,n denote the size of the longest cycle in G(n, c/n),c >1 constant. We show that there exists a continuous function f(c) such that Lc,n/n→f(c) a.s. for c>20, thus extending a result of Frieze and the author to smaller values of c. Thereafter, for c>20, we determine the limit of the probability that G(n, c/n)contains cycles of every length between the length of its shortest and its longest cycles as n→∞. AU - Anastos, Michael ID - 13042 IS - 2 JF - Electronic Journal of Combinatorics TI - A note on long cycles in sparse random graphs VL - 30 ER - TY - DATA AB - Disulfide bond formation is fundamentally important for protein structure, and constitutes a key mechanism by which cells regulate the intracellular oxidation state. Peroxiredoxins (PRDXs) eliminate reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide through a catalytic cycle of Cys oxidation and reduction. Additionally, upon Cys oxidation PRDXs undergo extensive conformational rearrangements that may underlie their presently structurally poorly defined functions as molecular chaperones. Rearrangements include high molecular-weight oligomerization, the dynamics of which are, however, poorly understood, as is the impact of disulfide bond formation on these properties. Here we show that formation of disulfide bonds along the catalytic cycle induces extensive microsecond time scale dynamics, as monitored by magic-angle spinning NMR of the 216 kDa-large Tsa1 decameric assembly and solution-NMR of a designed dimeric mutant. We ascribe the conformational dynamics to structural frustration, resulting from conflicts between the disulfide-constrained reduction of mobility and the desire to fulfil other favorable contacts. This data repository contains NMR data presented in the associated manuscript AU - Schanda, Paul ID - 12820 TI - Research data of the publication "Disulfide-bond-induced structural frustration and dynamic disorder in a peroxiredoxin from MAS NMR" ER - TY - JOUR AB - We calculate reflectivities of dynamically compressed water, water-ethanol mixtures, and ammonia at infrared and optical wavelengths with density functional theory and molecular dynamics simulations. The influence of the exchange-correlation functional on the results is examined in detail. Our findings indicate that the consistent use of the HSE hybrid functional reproduces experimental results much better than the commonly used PBE functional. The HSE functional offers not only a more accurate description of the electronic band gap but also shifts the onset of molecular dissociation in the molecular dynamics simulations to significantly higher pressures. We also highlight the importance of using accurate reference standards in reflectivity experiments and reanalyze infrared and optical reflectivity data from recent experiments. Thus, our combined theoretical and experimental work explains and resolves lingering discrepancies between calculations and measurements for the investigated molecular substances under shock compression. AU - French, Martin AU - Bethkenhagen, Mandy AU - Ravasio, Alessandra AU - Hernandez, Jean Alexis ID - 13039 IS - 13 JF - Physical Review B SN - 2469-9950 TI - Ab initio calculation of the reflectivity of molecular fluids under shock compression VL - 107 ER - TY - JOUR AB - There is a need for the development of lead-free thermoelectric materials for medium-/high-temperature applications. Here, we report a thiol-free tin telluride (SnTe) precursor that can be thermally decomposed to produce SnTe crystals with sizes ranging from tens to several hundreds of nanometers. We further engineer SnTe–Cu2SnTe3 nanocomposites with a homogeneous phase distribution by decomposing the liquid SnTe precursor containing a dispersion of Cu1.5Te colloidal nanoparticles. The presence of Cu within the SnTe and the segregated semimetallic Cu2SnTe3 phase effectively improves the electrical conductivity of SnTe while simultaneously reducing the lattice thermal conductivity without compromising the Seebeck coefficient. Overall, power factors up to 3.63 mW m–1 K–2 and thermoelectric figures of merit up to 1.04 are obtained at 823 K, which represent a 167% enhancement compared with pristine SnTe. AU - Nan, Bingfei AU - Song, Xuan AU - Chang, Cheng AU - Xiao, Ke AU - Zhang, Yu AU - Yang, Linlin AU - Horta, Sharona AU - Li, Junshan AU - Lim, Khak Ho AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 13092 IS - 19 JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces SN - 1944-8244 TI - Bottom-up synthesis of SnTe-based thermoelectric composites VL - 15 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Endocytosis is a key cellular process involved in the uptake of nutrients, pathogens, or the therapy of diseases. Most studies have focused on spherical objects, whereas biologically relevant shapes can be highly anisotropic. In this letter, we use an experimental model system based on Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) and dumbbell-shaped colloidal particles to mimic and investigate the first stage of the passive endocytic process: engulfment of an anisotropic object by the membrane. Our model has specific ligand–receptor interactions realized by mobile receptors on the vesicles and immobile ligands on the particles. Through a series of experiments, theory, and molecular dynamics simulations, we quantify the wrapping process of anisotropic dumbbells by GUVs and identify distinct stages of the wrapping pathway. We find that the strong curvature variation in the neck of the dumbbell as well as membrane tension are crucial in determining both the speed of wrapping and the final states. AU - Azadbakht, Ali AU - Meadowcroft, Billie AU - Varkevisser, Thijs AU - Šarić, Anđela AU - Kraft, Daniela J. ID - 13094 IS - 10 JF - Nano Letters SN - 1530-6984 TI - Wrapping pathways of anisotropic dumbbell particles by Giant Unilamellar Vesicles VL - 23 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The direct, solid state, and reversible conversion between heat and electricity using thermoelectric devices finds numerous potential uses, especially around room temperature. However, the relatively high material processing cost limits their real applications. Silver selenide (Ag2Se) is one of the very few n-type thermoelectric (TE) materials for room-temperature applications. Herein, we report a room temperature, fast, and aqueous-phase synthesis approach to produce Ag2Se, which can be extended to other metal chalcogenides. These materials reach TE figures of merit (zT) of up to 0.76 at 380 K. To improve these values, bismuth sulfide (Bi2S3) particles also prepared in an aqueous solution are incorporated into the Ag2Se matrix. In this way, a series of Ag2Se/Bi2S3 composites with Bi2S3 wt % of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 are prepared by solution blending and hot-press sintering. The presence of Bi2S3 significantly improves the Seebeck coefficient and power factor while at the same time decreasing the thermal conductivity with no apparent drop in electrical conductivity. Thus, a maximum zT value of 0.96 is achieved in the composites with 1.0 wt % Bi2S3 at 370 K. Furthermore, a high average zT value (zTave) of 0.93 in the 300–390 K range is demonstrated. AU - Nan, Bingfei AU - Li, Mengyao AU - Zhang, Yu AU - Xiao, Ke AU - Lim, Khak Ho AU - Chang, Cheng AU - Han, Xu AU - Zuo, Yong AU - Li, Junshan AU - Arbiol, Jordi AU - Llorca, Jordi AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 13093 JF - ACS Applied Electronic Materials TI - Engineering of thermoelectric composites based on silver selenide in aqueous solution and ambient temperature ER - TY - JOUR AB - We use a function field version of the Hardy–Littlewood circle method to study the locus of free rational curves on an arbitrary smooth projective hypersurface of sufficiently low degree. On the one hand this allows us to bound the dimension of the singular locus of the moduli space of rational curves on such hypersurfaces and, on the other hand, it sheds light on Peyre’s reformulation of the Batyrev–Manin conjecture in terms of slopes with respect to the tangent bundle. AU - Browning, Timothy D AU - Sawin, Will ID - 13091 IS - 3 JF - Algebra and Number Theory SN - 1937-0652 TI - Free rational curves on low degree hypersurfaces and the circle method VL - 17 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The ability to control the direction of scattered light is crucial to provide flexibility and scalability for a wide range of on-chip applications, such as integrated photonics, quantum information processing, and nonlinear optics. Tunable directionality can be achieved by applying external magnetic fields that modify optical selection rules, by using nonlinear effects, or interactions with vibrations. However, these approaches are less suitable to control microwave photon propagation inside integrated superconducting quantum devices. Here, we demonstrate on-demand tunable directional scattering based on two periodically modulated transmon qubits coupled to a transmission line at a fixed distance. By changing the relative phase between the modulation tones, we realize unidirectional forward or backward photon scattering. Such an in-situ switchable mirror represents a versatile tool for intra- and inter-chip microwave photonic processors. In the future, a lattice of qubits can be used to realize topological circuits that exhibit strong nonreciprocity or chirality. AU - Redchenko, Elena AU - Poshakinskiy, Alexander V. AU - Sett, Riya AU - Zemlicka, Martin AU - Poddubny, Alexander N. AU - Fink, Johannes M ID - 13117 JF - Nature Communications TI - Tunable directional photon scattering from a pair of superconducting qubits VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Quantum entanglement is a key resource in currently developed quantum technologies. Sharing this fragile property between superconducting microwave circuits and optical or atomic systems would enable new functionalities, but this has been hindered by an energy scale mismatch of >104 and the resulting mutually imposed loss and noise. In this work, we created and verified entanglement between microwave and optical fields in a millikelvin environment. Using an optically pulsed superconducting electro-optical device, we show entanglement between propagating microwave and optical fields in the continuous variable domain. This achievement not only paves the way for entanglement between superconducting circuits and telecom wavelength light, but also has wide-ranging implications for hybrid quantum networks in the context of modularization, scaling, sensing, and cross-platform verification. AU - Sahu, Rishabh AU - Qiu, Liu AU - Hease, William J AU - Arnold, Georg M AU - Minoguchi, Y. AU - Rabl, P. AU - Fink, Johannes M ID - 13106 IS - 6646 JF - Science KW - Multidisciplinary SN - 0036-8075 TI - Entangling microwaves with light VL - 380 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the representative volume element (RVE) method, which is a method to approximately infer the effective behavior ahom of a stationary random medium. The latter is described by a coefficient field a(x) generated from a given ensemble ⟨⋅⟩ and the corresponding linear elliptic operator −∇⋅a∇. In line with the theory of homogenization, the method proceeds by computing d=3 correctors (d denoting the space dimension). To be numerically tractable, this computation has to be done on a finite domain: the so-called representative volume element, i.e., a large box with, say, periodic boundary conditions. The main message of this article is: Periodize the ensemble instead of its realizations. By this, we mean that it is better to sample from a suitably periodized ensemble than to periodically extend the restriction of a realization a(x) from the whole-space ensemble ⟨⋅⟩. We make this point by investigating the bias (or systematic error), i.e., the difference between ahom and the expected value of the RVE method, in terms of its scaling w.r.t. the lateral size L of the box. In case of periodizing a(x), we heuristically argue that this error is generically O(L−1). In case of a suitable periodization of ⟨⋅⟩ , we rigorously show that it is O(L−d). In fact, we give a characterization of the leading-order error term for both strategies and argue that even in the isotropic case it is generically non-degenerate. We carry out the rigorous analysis in the convenient setting of ensembles ⟨⋅⟩ of Gaussian type, which allow for a straightforward periodization, passing via the (integrable) covariance function. This setting has also the advantage of making the Price theorem and the Malliavin calculus available for optimal stochastic estimates of correctors. We actually need control of second-order correctors to capture the leading-order error term. This is due to inversion symmetry when applying the two-scale expansion to the Green function. As a bonus, we present a stream-lined strategy to estimate the error in a higher-order two-scale expansion of the Green function. AU - Clozeau, Nicolas AU - Josien, Marc AU - Otto, Felix AU - Xu, Qiang ID - 13129 JF - Foundations of Computational Mathematics SN - 1615-3375 TI - Bias in the representative volume element method: Periodize the ensemble instead of its realizations ER - TY - GEN AB - This dataset comprises all data shown in the figures of the submitted article "Tunable directional photon scattering from a pair of superconducting qubits" at arXiv:2205.03293. Additional raw data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. AU - Redchenko, Elena AU - Poshakinskiy, Alexander AU - Sett, Riya AU - Zemlicka, Martin AU - Poddubny, Alexander AU - Fink, Johannes M ID - 13124 TI - Tunable directional photon scattering from a pair of superconducting qubits ER - TY - GEN AB - Data for submitted article "Entangling microwaves with light" at arXiv:2301.03315v1 AU - Sahu, Rishabh ID - 13122 TI - Entangling microwaves with light ER - TY - JOUR AB - Brachyury, a member of T-box gene family, is widely known for its major role in mesoderm specification in bilaterians. It is also present in non-bilaterian metazoans, such as cnidarians, where it acts as a component of an axial patterning system. In this study, we present a phylogenetic analysis of Brachyury genes within phylum Cnidaria, investigate differential expression and address a functional framework of Brachyury paralogs in hydrozoan Dynamena pumila. Our analysis indicates two duplication events of Brachyury within the cnidarian lineage. The first duplication likely appeared in the medusozoan ancestor, resulting in two copies in medusozoans, while the second duplication arose in the hydrozoan ancestor, resulting in three copies in hydrozoans. Brachyury1 and 2 display a conservative expression pattern marking the oral pole of the body axis in D. pumila. On the contrary, Brachyury3 expression was detected in scattered presumably nerve cells of the D. pumila larva. Pharmacological modulations indicated that Brachyury3 is not under regulation of cWnt signaling in contrast to the other two Brachyury genes. Divergence in expression patterns and regulation suggest neofunctionalization of Brachyury3 in hydrozoans. AU - Vetrova, Alexandra A. AU - Kupaeva, Daria M. AU - Kizenko, Alena AU - Lebedeva, Tatiana S. AU - Walentek, Peter AU - Tsikolia, Nikoloz AU - Kremnyov, Stanislav V. ID - 13166 JF - Scientific Reports TI - The evolutionary history of Brachyury genes in Hydrozoa involves duplications, divergence, and neofunctionalization VL - 13 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider the spin- 1 2 Heisenberg chain (XXX model) weakly perturbed away from integrability by an isotropic next-to-nearest neighbor exchange interaction. Recently, it was conjectured that this model possesses an infinite tower of quasiconserved integrals of motion (charges) [D. Kurlov et al., Phys. Rev. B 105, 104302 (2022)]. In this work we first test this conjecture by investigating how the norm of the adiabatic gauge potential (AGP) scales with the system size, which is known to be a remarkably accurate measure of chaos. We find that for the perturbed XXX chain the behavior of the AGP norm corresponds to neither an integrable nor a chaotic regime, which supports the conjectured quasi-integrability of the model. We then prove the conjecture and explicitly construct the infinite set of quasiconserved charges. Our proof relies on the fact that the XXX chain perturbed by next-to-nearest exchange interaction can be viewed as a truncation of an integrable long-range deformation of the Heisenberg spin chain. AU - Orlov, Pavel AU - Tiutiakina, Anastasiia AU - Sharipov, Rustem AU - Petrova, Elena AU - Gritsev, Vladimir AU - Kurlov, Denis V. ID - 13138 IS - 18 JF - Physical Review B SN - 2469-9950 TI - Adiabatic eigenstate deformations and weak integrability breaking of Heisenberg chain VL - 107 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The primary cell wall is a fundamental plant constituent that is flexible but sufficiently rigid to support the plant cell shape. Although many studies have demonstrated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) serve as important signaling messengers to modify the cell wall structure and affect cellular growth, the regulatory mechanism underlying the spatial-temporal regulation of ROS activity for cell wall maintenance remains largely unclear. Here, we demonstrate the role of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) multicopper oxidase-like protein skewed 5 (SKU5) and its homolog SKU5-similar 1 (SKS1) in root cell wall formation through modulating ROS homeostasis. Loss of SKU5 and SKS1 function resulted in aberrant division planes, protruding cell walls, ectopic deposition of iron, and reduced nicotinamide adeninedinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase-dependent ROS overproduction in the root epidermis–cortex and cortex–endodermis junctions. A decrease in ROS level or inhibition of NADPH oxidase activity rescued the cell wall defects of sku5 sks1 double mutants. SKU5 and SKS1 proteins were activated by iron treatment, and iron over-accumulated in the walls between the root epidermis and cortex cell layers of sku5 sks1. The glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored motif was crucial for membrane association and functionality of SKU5 and SKS1. Overall, our results identified SKU5 and SKS1 as regulators of ROS at the cell surface for regulation of cell wall structure and root cell growth. AU - Chen, C AU - Zhang, Y AU - Cai, J AU - Qiu, Y AU - Li, L AU - Gao, C AU - Gao, Y AU - Ke, M AU - Wu, S AU - Wei, C AU - Chen, J AU - Xu, T AU - Friml, Jiří AU - Wang, J AU - Li, R AU - Chao, D AU - Zhang, B AU - Chen, X AU - Gao, Z ID - 13213 IS - 3 JF - Plant Physiology SN - 0032-0889 TI - Multi-copper oxidases SKU5 and SKS1 coordinate cell wall formation using apoplastic redox-based reactions in roots VL - 192 ER - TY - JOUR AB - In Gram negative bacteria, the multiple antibiotic resistance or mar operon, is known to control the expression of multi-drug efflux genes that protect bacteria from a wide range of drugs. As many different chemical compounds can induce this operon, identifying the parameters that govern the dynamics of its induction is crucial to better characterize the processes of tolerance and resistance. Most experiments have assumed that the properties of the mar transcriptional network can be inferred from population measurements. However, measurements from an asynchronous population of cells can mask underlying phenotypic variations of single cells. We monitored the activity of the mar promoter in single Escherichia coli cells in linear micro-colonies and established that the response to a steady level of inducer was most heterogeneous within individual colonies for an intermediate value of inducer. Specifically, sub-lineages defined by contiguous daughter-cells exhibited similar promoter activity, whereas activity was greatly variable between different sub-lineages. Specific sub-trees of uniform promoter activity persisted over several generations. Statistical analyses of the lineages suggest that the presence of these sub-trees is the signature of an inducible memory of the promoter state that is transmitted from mother to daughter cells. This single-cell study reveals that the degree of epigenetic inheritance changes as a function of inducer concentration, suggesting that phenotypic inheritance may be an inducible phenotype. AU - Guet, Calin C AU - Bruneaux, L AU - Oikonomou, P AU - Aldana, M AU - Cluzel, P ID - 12478 JF - Frontiers in Microbiology TI - Monitoring lineages of growing and dividing bacteria reveals an inducible memory of mar operon expression VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The formation of amyloid fibrils is a general class of protein self-assembly behaviour, which is associated with both functional biology and the development of a number of disorders, such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases. In this Review, we discuss how general physical concepts from the study of phase transitions can be used to illuminate the fundamental mechanisms of amyloid self-assembly. We summarize progress in the efforts to describe the essential biophysical features of amyloid self-assembly as a nucleation-and-growth process and discuss how master equation approaches can reveal the key molecular pathways underlying this process, including the role of secondary nucleation. Additionally, we outline how non-classical aspects of aggregate formation involving oligomers or biomolecular condensates have emerged, inspiring developments in understanding, modelling and modulating complex protein assembly pathways. Finally, we consider how these concepts can be applied to kinetics-based drug discovery and therapeutic design to develop treatments for protein aggregation diseases. AU - Michaels, Thomas C.T. AU - Qian, Daoyuan AU - Šarić, Anđela AU - Vendruscolo, Michele AU - Linse, Sara AU - Knowles, Tuomas P.J. ID - 13237 JF - Nature Reviews Physics TI - Amyloid formation as a protein phase transition VL - 5 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Dynamic reorganization of the cytoplasm is key to many core cellular processes, such as cell division, cell migration, and cell polarization. Cytoskeletal rearrangements are thought to constitute the main drivers of cytoplasmic flows and reorganization. In contrast, remarkably little is known about how dynamic changes in size and shape of cell organelles affect cytoplasmic organization. Here, we show that within the maturing zebrafish oocyte, the surface localization of exocytosis-competent cortical granules (Cgs) upon germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) is achieved by the combined activities of yolk granule (Yg) fusion and microtubule aster formation and translocation. We find that Cgs are moved towards the oocyte surface through radially outward cytoplasmic flows induced by Ygs fusing and compacting towards the oocyte center in response to GVBD. We further show that vesicles decorated with the small Rab GTPase Rab11, a master regulator of vesicular trafficking and exocytosis, accumulate together with Cgs at the oocyte surface. This accumulation is achieved by Rab11-positive vesicles being transported by acentrosomal microtubule asters, the formation of which is induced by the release of CyclinB/Cdk1 upon GVBD, and which display a net movement towards the oocyte surface by preferentially binding to the oocyte actin cortex. We finally demonstrate that the decoration of Cgs by Rab11 at the oocyte surface is needed for Cg exocytosis and subsequent chorion elevation, a process central in egg activation. Collectively, these findings unravel a yet unrecognized role of organelle fusion, functioning together with cytoskeletal rearrangements, in orchestrating cytoplasmic organization during oocyte maturation. AU - Shamipour, Shayan AU - Hofmann, Laura AU - Steccari, Irene AU - Kardos, Roland AU - Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J ID - 13229 IS - 6 JF - PLoS Biology TI - Yolk granule fusion and microtubule aster formation regulate cortical granule translocation and exocytosis in zebrafish oocytes VL - 21 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Nominally identical materials exchange net electric charge during contact through a mechanism that is still debated. ‘Mosaic models’, in which surfaces are presumed to consist of a random patchwork of microscopic donor/acceptor sites, offer an appealing explanation for this phenomenon. However, recent experiments have shown that global differences persist even between same-material samples, which the standard mosaic framework does not account for. Here, we expand the mosaic framework by incorporating global differences in the densities of donor/acceptor sites. We develop an analytical model, backed by numerical simulations, that smoothly connects the global and deterministic charge transfer of different materials to the local and stochastic mosaic picture normally associated with identical materials. Going further, we extend our model to explain the effect of contact asymmetries during sliding, providing a plausible explanation for reversal of charging sign that has been observed experimentally. AU - Grosjean, Galien M AU - Waitukaitis, Scott R ID - 13197 IS - 6 JF - Physical Review Materials KW - Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) KW - General Materials Science SN - 2475-9953 TI - Asymmetries in triboelectric charging: Generalizing mosaic models to different-material samples and sliding contacts VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR AB - To interpret the sensory environment, the brain combines ambiguous sensory measurements with knowledge that reflects context-specific prior experience. But environmental contexts can change abruptly and unpredictably, resulting in uncertainty about the current context. Here we address two questions: how should context-specific prior knowledge optimally guide the interpretation of sensory stimuli in changing environments, and do human decision-making strategies resemble this optimum? We probe these questions with a task in which subjects report the orientation of ambiguous visual stimuli that were drawn from three dynamically switching distributions, representing different environmental contexts. We derive predictions for an ideal Bayesian observer that leverages knowledge about the statistical structure of the task to maximize decision accuracy, including knowledge about the dynamics of the environment. We show that its decisions are biased by the dynamically changing task context. The magnitude of this decision bias depends on the observer’s continually evolving belief about the current context. The model therefore not only predicts that decision bias will grow as the context is indicated more reliably, but also as the stability of the environment increases, and as the number of trials since the last context switch grows. Analysis of human choice data validates all three predictions, suggesting that the brain leverages knowledge of the statistical structure of environmental change when interpreting ambiguous sensory signals. AU - Charlton, Julie A. AU - Mlynarski, Wiktor F AU - Bai, Yoon H. AU - Hermundstad, Ann M. AU - Goris, Robbe L.T. ID - 13230 IS - 6 JF - PLoS Computational Biology TI - Environmental dynamics shape perceptual decision bias VL - 19 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The potential of immune-evasive mutation accumulation in the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to its rapid spread, causing over 600 million confirmed cases and more than 6.5 million confirmed deaths. The huge demand for the rapid development and deployment of low-cost and effective vaccines against emerging variants has renewed interest in DNA vaccine technology. Here, we report the rapid generation and immunological evaluation of novel DNA vaccine candidates against the Wuhan-Hu-1 and Omicron variants based on the RBD protein fused with the Potato virus X coat protein (PVXCP). The delivery of DNA vaccines using electroporation in a two-dose regimen induced high-antibody titers and profound cellular responses in mice. The antibody titers induced against the Omicron variant of the vaccine were sufficient for effective protection against both Omicron and Wuhan-Hu-1 virus infections. The PVXCP protein in the vaccine construct shifted the immune response to the favorable Th1-like type and provided the oligomerization of RBD-PVXCP protein. Naked DNA delivery by needle-free injection allowed us to achieve antibody titers comparable with mRNA-LNP delivery in rabbits. These data identify the RBD-PVXCP DNA vaccine platform as a promising solution for robust and effective SARS-CoV-2 protection, supporting further translational study. AU - Dormeshkin, Dmitri AU - Katsin, Mikalai AU - Stegantseva, Maria AU - Golenchenko, Sergey AU - Shapira, Michail AU - Dubovik, Simon AU - Lutskovich, Dzmitry AU - Kavaleuski, Anton AU - Meleshko, Alexander ID - 13232 IS - 6 JF - Vaccines TI - Design and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine encoding RBD-PVXCP fusion protein VL - 11 ER - TY - JOUR AB - AgSbSe2 is a promising thermoelectric (TE) p-type material for applications in the middle-temperature range. AgSbSe2 is characterized by relatively low thermal conductivities and high Seebeck coefficients, but its main limitation is moderate electrical conductivity. Herein, we detail an efficient and scalable hot-injection synthesis route to produce AgSbSe2 nanocrystals (NCs). To increase the carrier concentration and improve the electrical conductivity, these NCs are doped with Sn2+ on Sb3+ sites. Upon processing, the Sn2+ chemical state is conserved using a reducing NaBH4 solution to displace the organic ligand and anneal the material under a forming gas flow. The TE properties of the dense materials obtained from the consolidation of the NCs using a hot pressing are then characterized. The presence of Sn2+ ions replacing Sb3+ significantly increases the charge carrier concentration and, consequently, the electrical conductivity. Opportunely, the measured Seebeck coefficient varied within a small range upon Sn doping. The excellent performance obtained when Sn2+ ions are prevented from oxidation is rationalized by modeling the system. Calculated band structures disclosed that Sn doping induces convergence of the AgSbSe2 valence bands, accounting for an enhanced electronic effective mass. The dramatically enhanced carrier transport leads to a maximized power factor for AgSb0.98Sn0.02Se2 of 0.63 mW m–1 K–2 at 640 K. Thermally, phonon scattering is significantly enhanced in the NC-based materials, yielding an ultralow thermal conductivity of 0.3 W mK–1 at 666 K. Overall, a record-high figure of merit (zT) is obtained at 666 K for AgSb0.98Sn0.02Se2 at zT = 1.37, well above the values obtained for undoped AgSbSe2, at zT = 0.58 and state-of-art Pb- and Te-free materials, which makes AgSb0.98Sn0.02Se2 an excellent p-type candidate for medium-temperature TE applications. AU - Liu, Yu AU - Li, Mingquan AU - Wan, Shanhong AU - Lim, Khak Ho AU - Zhang, Yu AU - Li, Mengyao AU - Li, Junshan AU - Ibáñez, Maria AU - Hong, Min AU - Cabot, Andreu ID - 13235 IS - 12 JF - ACS Nano SN - 1936-0851 TI - Surface chemistry and band engineering in AgSbSe₂: Toward high thermoelectric performance VL - 17 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study ab initio approaches for calculating x-ray Thomson scattering spectra from density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations based on a modified Chihara formula that expresses the inelastic contribution in terms of the dielectric function. We study the electronic dynamic structure factor computed from the Mermin dielectric function using an ab initio electron-ion collision frequency in comparison to computations using a linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (LR-TDDFT) framework for hydrogen and beryllium and investigate the dispersion of free-free and bound-free contributions to the scattering signal. A separate treatment of these contributions, where only the free-free part follows the Mermin dispersion, shows good agreement with LR-TDDFT results for ambient-density beryllium, but breaks down for highly compressed matter where the bound states become pressure ionized. LR-TDDFT is used to reanalyze x-ray Thomson scattering experiments on beryllium demonstrating strong deviations from the plasma conditions inferred with traditional analytic models at small scattering angles. AU - Schörner, Maximilian AU - Bethkenhagen, Mandy AU - Döppner, Tilo AU - Kraus, Dominik AU - Fletcher, Luke B. AU - Glenzer, Siegfried H. AU - Redmer, Ronald ID - 13231 IS - 6 JF - Physical Review E SN - 2470-0045 TI - X-ray Thomson scattering spectra from density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations based on a modified Chihara formula VL - 107 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the impact of finite-range physics on the zero-range-model analysis of three-body recombination in ultracold atoms. We find that temperature dependence of the zero-range parameters can vary from one set of measurements to another as it may be driven by the distribution of error bars in the experiment, and not by the underlying three-body physics. To study finite-temperature effects in three-body recombination beyond the zero-range physics, we introduce and examine a finite-range model based upon a hyperspherical formalism. The systematic error discussed in this Letter may provide a significant contribution to the error bars of measured three-body parameters. AU - Agafonova, Sofya AU - Lemeshko, Mikhail AU - Volosniev, Artem ID - 13233 IS - 6 JF - Physical Review A SN - 2469-9926 TI - Finite-range bias in fitting three-body loss to the zero-range model VL - 107 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian summer monsoon (ISM, or monsoon) are two giants of tropical climate. Here we assess the future evolution of the ENSO-monsoon teleconnection in climate simulations with idealized forcing of CO2 increment at a rate of 1% year-1 starting from a present-day condition (367 p.p.m.) until quadrupling. We find a monotonous weakening of the ENSO-monsoon teleconnection with the increase in CO2. Increased co-occurrences of El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipoles (pIODs) in a warmer climate weaken the teleconnection. Co-occurrences of El Niño and pIOD are attributable to mean sea surface temperature (SST) warming that resembles a pIOD-type warming pattern in the Indian Ocean and an El Niño-type warming in the Pacific. Since ENSO is a critical precursor of the strength of the Indian monsoon, a weakening of this relation may mean a less predictable Indian monsoon in a warmer climate. AU - Goswami, Bidyut B AU - An, Soon Il ID - 13256 JF - npj Climate and Atmospheric Science TI - An assessment of the ENSO-monsoon teleconnection in a warming climate VL - 6 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Experimental evolution studies are powerful approaches to examine the evolutionary history of lab populations. Such studies have shed light on how selection changes phenotypes and genotypes. Most of these studies have not examined the time course of adaptation under sexual selection manipulation, by resequencing the populations’ genomes at multiple time points. Here, we analyze allele frequency trajectories in Drosophila pseudoobscura where we altered their sexual selection regime for 200 generations and sequenced pooled populations at 5 time points. The intensity of sexual selection was either relaxed in monogamous populations (M) or elevated in polyandrous lines (E). We present a comprehensive study of how selection alters population genetics parameters at the chromosome and gene level. We investigate differences in the effective population size—Ne—between the treatments, and perform a genome-wide scan to identify signatures of selection from the time-series data. We found genomic signatures of adaptation to both regimes in D. pseudoobscura. There are more significant variants in E lines as expected from stronger sexual selection. However, we found that the response on the X chromosome was substantial in both treatments, more pronounced in E and restricted to the more recently sex-linked chromosome arm XR in M. In the first generations of experimental evolution, we estimate Ne to be lower on the X in E lines, which might indicate a swift adaptive response at the onset of selection. Additionally, the third chromosome was affected by elevated polyandry whereby its distal end harbors a region showing a strong signal of adaptive evolution especially in E lines. AU - De Castro Barbosa Rodrigues Barata, Carolina AU - Snook, Rhonda R. AU - Ritchie, Michael G. AU - Kosiol, Carolin ID - 13260 IS - 7 JF - Genome biology and evolution TI - Selection on the fly: Short-term adaptation to an altered sexual selection regime in Drosophila pseudoobscura VL - 15 ER - TY - GEN AB - Asteroseismology has transformed stellar astrophysics. Red giant asteroseismology is a prime example, with oscillation periods and amplitudes that are readily detectable with time-domain space-based telescopes. These oscillations can be used to infer masses, ages and radii for large numbers of stars, providing unique constraints on stellar populations in our galaxy. The cadence, duration, and spatial resolution of the Roman galactic bulge time-domain survey (GBTDS) are well-suited for asteroseismology and will probe an important population not studied by prior missions. We identify photometric precision as a key requirement for realizing the potential of asteroseismology with Roman. A precision of 1 mmag per 15-min cadence or better for saturated stars will enable detections of the populous red clump star population in the Galactic bulge. If the survey efficiency is better than expected, we argue for repeat observations of the same fields to improve photometric precision, or covering additional fields to expand the stellar population reach if the photometric precision for saturated stars is better than 1 mmag. Asteroseismology is relatively insensitive to the timing of the observations during the mission, and the prime red clump targets can be observed in a single 70 day campaign in any given field. Complementary stellar characterization, particularly astrometry tied to the Gaia system, will also dramatically expand the diagnostic power of asteroseismology. We also highlight synergies to Roman GBTDS exoplanet science using transits and microlensing. AU - Huber, Daniel AU - Pinsonneault, Marc AU - Beck, Paul AU - Bedding, Timothy R. AU - Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Joss Bland-Hawthorn AU - Breton, Sylvain N. AU - Bugnet, Lisa Annabelle AU - Chaplin, William J. AU - Garcia, Rafael A. AU - Grunblatt, Samuel K. AU - Guzik, Joyce A. AU - Hekker, Saskia AU - Kawaler, Steven D. AU - Mathis, Stephane AU - Mathur, Savita AU - Metcalfe, Travis AU - Mosser, Benoit AU - Ness, Melissa K. AU - Piro, Anthony L. AU - Serenelli, Aldo AU - Sharma, Sanjib AU - Soderblom, David R. AU - Stassun, Keivan G. AU - Stello, Dennis AU - Tayar, Jamie AU - Belle, Gerard T. van AU - Zinn, Joel C. ID - 13447 T2 - arXiv TI - Asteroseismology with the Roman galactic bulge time-domain survey ER - TY - THES AB - Most energy in humans is produced in form of ATP by the mitochondrial respiratory chain consisting of several protein assemblies embedded into lipid membrane (complexes I-V). Complex I is the first and the largest enzyme of the respiratory chain which is essential for energy production. It couples the transfer of two electrons from NADH to ubiquinone with proton translocation across bacterial or inner mitochondrial membrane. The coupling mechanism between electron transfer and proton translocation is one of the biggest enigma in bioenergetics and structural biology. Even though the enzyme has been studied for decades, only recent technological advances in cryo-EM allowed its extensive structural investigation. Complex I from E.coli appears to be of special importance because it is a perfect model system with a rich mutant library, however the structure of the entire complex was unknown. In this thesis I have resolved structures of the minimal complex I version from E. coli in different states including reduced, inhibited, under reaction turnover and several others. Extensive structural analyses of these structures and comparison to structures from other species allowed to derive general features of conformational dynamics and propose a universal coupling mechanism. The mechanism is straightforward, robust and consistent with decades of experimental data available for complex I from different species. Cyanobacterial NDH (cyanobacterial complex I) is a part of broad complex I superfamily and was studied as well in this thesis. It plays an important role in cyclic electron transfer (CET), during which electrons are cycled within PSI through ferredoxin and plastoquinone to generate proton gradient without NADPH production. Here, I solved structure of NDH and revealed additional state, which was not observed before. The novel “resting” state allowed to propose the mechanism of CET regulation. Moreover, conformational dynamics of NDH resembles one in complex I which suggest more broad universality of the proposed coupling mechanism. In summary, results presented here helped to interpret decades of experimental data for complex I and contributed to fundamental mechanistic understanding of protein function. AU - Kravchuk, Vladyslav ID - 12781 SN - 2663-337X TI - Structural and mechanistic study of bacterial complex I and its cyanobacterial ortholog ER - TY - THES AB - Deep learning has become an integral part of a large number of important applications, and many of the recent breakthroughs have been enabled by the ability to train very large models, capable to capture complex patterns and relationships from the data. At the same time, the massive sizes of modern deep learning models have made their deployment to smaller devices more challenging; this is particularly important, as in many applications the users rely on accurate deep learning predictions, but they only have access to devices with limited memory and compute power. One solution to this problem is to prune neural networks, by setting as many of their parameters as possible to zero, to obtain accurate sparse models with lower memory footprint. Despite the great research progress in obtaining sparse models that preserve accuracy, while satisfying memory and computational constraints, there are still many challenges associated with efficiently training sparse models, as well as understanding their generalization properties. The focus of this thesis is to investigate how the training process of sparse models can be made more efficient, and to understand the differences between sparse and dense models in terms of how well they can generalize to changes in the data distribution. We first study a method for co-training sparse and dense models, at a lower cost compared to regular training. With our method we can obtain very accurate sparse networks, and dense models that can recover the baseline accuracy. Furthermore, we are able to more easily analyze the differences, at prediction level, between the sparse-dense model pairs. Next, we investigate the generalization properties of sparse neural networks in more detail, by studying how well different sparse models trained on a larger task can adapt to smaller, more specialized tasks, in a transfer learning scenario. Our analysis across multiple pruning methods and sparsity levels reveals that sparse models provide features that can transfer similarly to or better than the dense baseline. However, the choice of the pruning method plays an important role, and can influence the results when the features are fixed (linear finetuning), or when they are allowed to adapt to the new task (full finetuning). Using sparse models with fixed masks for finetuning on new tasks has an important practical advantage, as it enables training neural networks on smaller devices. However, one drawback of current pruning methods is that the entire training cycle has to be repeated to obtain the initial sparse model, for every sparsity target; in consequence, the entire training process is costly and also multiple models need to be stored. In the last part of the thesis we propose a method that can train accurate dense models that are compressible in a single step, to multiple sparsity levels, without additional finetuning. Our method results in sparse models that can be competitive with existing pruning methods, and which can also successfully generalize to new tasks. AU - Peste, Elena-Alexandra ID - 13074 SN - 2663-337X TI - Efficiency and generalization of sparse neural networks ER - TY - THES AB - Pattern formation is of great importance for its contribution across different biological behaviours. During developmental processes for example, patterns of chemical gradients are established to determine cell fate and complex tissue patterns emerge to define structures such as limbs and vascular networks. Patterns are also seen in collectively migrating groups, for instance traveling waves of density emerging in moving animal flocks as well as collectively migrating cells and tissues. To what extent these biological patterns arise spontaneously through the local interaction of individual constituents or are dictated by higher level instructions is still an open question however there is evidence for the involvement of both types of process. Where patterns arise spontaneously there is a long standing interest in how far the interplay of mechanics, e.g. force generation and deformation, and chemistry, e.g. gene regulation and signaling, contributes to the behaviour. This is because many systems are able to both chemically regulate mechanical force production and chemically sense mechanical deformation, forming mechano-chemical feedback loops which can potentially become unstable towards spatio and/or temporal patterning. We work with experimental collaborators to investigate the possibility that this type of interaction drives pattern formation in biological systems at different scales. We focus first on tissue-level ERK-density waves observed during the wound healing response across different systems where many previous studies have proposed that patterns depend on polarized cell migration and arise from a mechanical flocking-like mechanism. By combining theory with mechanical and optogenetic perturbation experiments on in vitro monolayers we instead find evidence for mechanochemical pattern formation involving only scalar bilateral feedbacks between ERK signaling and cell contraction. We perform further modeling and experiment to study how this instability couples with polar cell migration in order to produce a robust and efficient wound healing response. In a following chapter we implement ERK-density coupling and cell migration in a 2D active vertex model to investigate the interaction of ERK-density patterning with different tissue rheologies and find that the spatio-temporal dynamics are able to both locally and globally fluidize a tissue across the solid-fluid glass transition. In a last chapter we move towards lower spatial scales in the context of subcellular patterning of the cell cytoskeleton where we investigate the transition between phases of spatially homogeneous temporal oscillations and chaotic spatio-temporal patterning in the dynamics of myosin and ROCK activities (a motor component of the actomyosin cytoskeleton and its activator). Experimental evidence supports an intrinsic chemical oscillator which we encode in a reaction model and couple to a contractile active gel description of the cell cortex. The model exhibits phases of chemical oscillations and contractile spatial patterning which reproduce many features of the dynamics seen in Drosophila oocyte epithelia in vivo. However, additional pharmacological perturbations to inhibit myosin contractility leaves the role of contractile instability unclear. We discuss alternative hypotheses and investigate the possibility of reaction-diffusion instability. AU - Boocock, Daniel R ID - 12964 SN - 2663-337X TI - Mechanochemical pattern formation across biological scales ER - TY - JOUR AB - The many-body localization (MBL) proximity effect is an intriguing phenomenon where a thermal bath localizes due to the interaction with a disordered system. The interplay of thermal and nonergodic behavior in these systems gives rise to a rich phase diagram, whose exploration is an active field of research. In this paper, we study a bosonic Hubbard model featuring two particle species representing the bath and the disordered system. Using state-of-the-art numerical techniques, we investigate the dynamics of the model in different regimes, based on which we obtain a tentative phase diagram as a function of coupling strength and bath size. When the bath is composed of a single particle, we observe clear signatures of a transition from an MBL proximity effect to a delocalized phase. Increasing the bath size, however, its thermalizing effect becomes stronger and eventually the whole system delocalizes in the range of moderate interaction strengths studied. In this regime, we characterize particle transport, revealing diffusive behavior of the originally localized bosons. AU - Brighi, Pietro AU - Ljubotina, Marko AU - Abanin, Dmitry A. AU - Serbyn, Maksym ID - 13963 IS - 5 JF - Physical Review B SN - 2469-9950 TI - Many-body localization proximity effect in a two-species bosonic Hubbard model VL - 108 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We present a low-scaling diagrammatic Monte Carlo approach to molecular correlation energies. Using combinatorial graph theory to encode many-body Hugenholtz diagrams, we sample the Møller-Plesset (MPn) perturbation series, obtaining accurate correlation energies up to n=5, with quadratic scaling in the number of basis functions. Our technique reduces the computational complexity of the molecular many-fermion correlation problem, opening up the possibility of low-scaling, accurate stochastic computations for a wide class of many-body systems described by Hugenholtz diagrams. AU - Bighin, Giacomo AU - Ho, Quoc P AU - Lemeshko, Mikhail AU - Tscherbul, T. V. ID - 13966 IS - 4 JF - Physical Review B SN - 2469-9950 TI - Diagrammatic Monte Carlo for electronic correlation in molecules: High-order many-body perturbation theory with low scaling VL - 108 ER - TY - JOUR AU - Madani, Amiera AU - Sletten, Eric T. AU - Cavedon, Cristian AU - Seeberger, Peter H. AU - Pieber, Bartholomäus ID - 13970 JF - Organic Syntheses SN - 0078-6209 TI - Visible-light-mediated oxidative debenzylation of 3-O-Benzyl-1,2:5,6-di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-glucofuranose VL - 100 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Cooperative disease defense emerges as group-level collective behavior, yet how group members make the underlying individual decisions is poorly understood. Using garden ants and fungal pathogens as an experimental model, we derive the rules governing individual ant grooming choices and show how they produce colony-level hygiene. Time-resolved behavioral analysis, pathogen quantification, and probabilistic modeling reveal that ants increase grooming and preferentially target highly-infectious individuals when perceiving high pathogen load, but transiently suppress grooming after having been groomed by nestmates. Ants thus react to both, the infectivity of others and the social feedback they receive on their own contagiousness. While inferred solely from momentary ant decisions, these behavioral rules quantitatively predict hour-long experimental dynamics, and synergistically combine into efficient colony-wide pathogen removal. Our analyses show that noisy individual decisions based on only local, incomplete, yet dynamically-updated information on pathogen threat and social feedback can lead to potent collective disease defense. AU - Casillas Perez, Barbara E AU - Bod'Ová, Katarína AU - Grasse, Anna V AU - Tkačik, Gašper AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 13127 JF - Nature Communications TI - Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants VL - 14 ER - TY - DATA AB - basic data for use in code for experimental data analysis for manuscript under revision: Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants Casillas-Pérez B, Boďová K, Grasse AV, Tkačik G, Cremer S AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 12945 KW - collective behavior KW - host-pathogen interactions KW - social immunity KW - epidemiology KW - social insects KW - probabilistic modeling TI - Data from: "Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants" ER - TY - THES AB - High-performance semiconductors rely upon precise control of heat and charge transport. This can be achieved by precisely engineering defects in polycrystalline solids. There are multiple approaches to preparing such polycrystalline semiconductors, and the transformation of solution-processed colloidal nanoparticles is appealing because colloidal nanoparticles combine low cost with structural and compositional tunability along with rich surface chemistry. However, the multiple processes from nanoparticle synthesis to the final bulk nanocomposites are very complex. They involve nanoparticle purification, post-synthetic modifications, and finally consolidation (thermal treatments and densification). All these properties dictate the final material’s composition and microstructure, ultimately affecting its functional properties. This thesis explores the synthesis, surface chemistry and consolidation of colloidal semiconductor nanoparticles into dense solids. In particular, the transformations that take place during these processes, and their effect on the material’s transport properties are evaluated. AU - Calcabrini, Mariano ID - 12885 SN - 2663-337X TI - Nanoparticle-based semiconductor solids: From synthesis to consolidation ER - TY - JOUR AB - Following up on the recent work on lower Ricci curvature bounds for quantum systems, we introduce two noncommutative versions of curvature-dimension bounds for symmetric quantum Markov semigroups over matrix algebras. Under suitable such curvature-dimension conditions, we prove a family of dimension-dependent functional inequalities, a version of the Bonnet–Myers theorem and concavity of entropy power in the noncommutative setting. We also provide examples satisfying certain curvature-dimension conditions, including Schur multipliers over matrix algebras, Herz–Schur multipliers over group algebras and generalized depolarizing semigroups. AU - Wirth, Melchior AU - Zhang, Haonan ID - 12087 JF - Annales Henri Poincare SN - 1424-0637 TI - Curvature-dimension conditions for symmetric quantum Markov semigroups VL - 24 ER - TY - JOUR AB - In 1998 Burago and Kleiner and (independently) McMullen gave examples of separated nets in Euclidean space which are non-bilipschitz equivalent to the integer lattice. We study weaker notions of equivalence of separated nets and demonstrate that such notions also give rise to distinct equivalence classes. Put differently, we find occurrences of particularly strong divergence of separated nets from the integer lattice. Our approach generalises that of Burago and Kleiner and McMullen which takes place largely in a continuous setting. Existence of irregular separated nets is verified via the existence of non-realisable density functions ρ:[0,1]d→(0,∞). In the present work we obtain stronger types of non-realisable densities. AU - Dymond, Michael AU - Kaluza, Vojtech ID - 9652 JF - Israel Journal of Mathematics KW - Lipschitz KW - bilipschitz KW - bounded displacement KW - modulus of continuity KW - separated net KW - non-realisable density KW - Burago--Kleiner construction TI - Highly irregular separated nets VL - 253 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The power factor of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) film can be significantly improved by optimizing the oxidation level of the film in oxidation and reduction processes. However, precise control over the oxidation and reduction effects in PEDOT:PSS remains a challenge, which greatly sacrifices both S and σ. Here, we propose a two-step post-treatment using a mixture of ethylene glycol (EG) and Arginine (Arg) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) in sequence to engineer high-performance PEDOT:PSS thermoelectric films. The high-polarity EG dopant removes the excess non-ionized PSS and induces benzenoid-to-quinoid conformational change in the PEDOT:PSS films. In particular, basic amino acid Arg tunes the oxidation level of PEDOT:PSS and prevents the films from over-oxidation during H2SO4 post-treatment, leading to increased S. The following H2SO4 post-treatment further induces highly orientated lamellar stacking microstructures to increase σ, yielding a maximum power factor of 170.6 μW m−1 K−2 at 460 K. Moreover, a novel trigonal-shape thermoelectric device is designed and assembled by the as-prepared PEDOT:PSS films in order to harvest heat via a vertical temperature gradient. An output power density of 33 μW cm−2 is generated at a temperature difference of 40 K, showing the potential application for low-grade wearable electronic devices. AU - Zhang, Li AU - Liu, Xingyu AU - Wu, Ting AU - Xu, Shengduo AU - Suo, Guoquan AU - Ye, Xiaohui AU - Hou, Xiaojiang AU - Yang, Yanling AU - Liu, Qingfeng AU - Wang, Hongqiang ID - 12113 JF - Applied Surface Science KW - Surfaces KW - Coatings and Films KW - Condensed Matter Physics KW - Surfaces and Interfaces KW - General Physics and Astronomy KW - General Chemistry SN - 0169-4332 TI - Two-step post-treatment to deliver high performance thermoelectric device with vertical temperature gradient VL - 613 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the large scale behavior of elliptic systems with stationary random coefficient that have only slowly decaying correlations. To this aim we analyze the so-called corrector equation, a degenerate elliptic equation posed in the probability space. In this contribution, we use a parabolic approach and optimally quantify the time decay of the semigroup. For the theoretical point of view, we prove an optimal decay estimate of the gradient and flux of the corrector when spatially averaged over a scale R larger than 1. For the numerical point of view, our results provide convenient tools for the analysis of various numerical methods. AU - Clozeau, Nicolas ID - 10173 JF - Stochastics and Partial Differential Equations: Analysis and Computations SN - 2194-0401 TI - Optimal decay of the parabolic semigroup in stochastic homogenization for correlated coefficient fields VL - 11 ER -