The modulation of main-chain and side-chain conformational heterogeneity and solvent structure in monoclinic lysozyme crystals by dehydration (related to water activity) and temperature is examined. Decreasing the relative humidity (from 99 to 11%) and decreasing the temperature both lead to contraction of the unit cell, to an increased area of crystal contacts and to remodeling of primarily contact and solvent-exposed residues. Both lead to the depopulation of some minor side-chain conformers and to the generation of new conformations.

Cracks in articular cartilage are a common sign of joint damage, but failure properties of cartilage are poorly understood, especially for damage initiation. Cartilage failure may be further complicated by rate-dependent and depth-dependent properties, including the compliant surface layer. Existing blunt impact methods do not resolve local cartilage inhomogeneities and traditional fracture mechanics tests induce crack blunting and may violate underlying assumptions of linear elasticity.

Epitaxial SrRuO3 and CaRuO3 films were grown under an excess flux of elemental ruthenium in an adsorption-controlled regime by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE), where the excess volatile RuOx (x = 2 or 3) desorbs from the growth front leaving behind a single-phase film. By growing in this regime, we were able to achieve SrRuO3 and CaRuO3 films with residual resistivity ratios (Ï300 K/Ï4 K) of 76 and 75, respectively.

The superconducting properties of Sr1-xLaxCuO2 thin films are strongly affected by sample preparation procedures, including the annealing step, which are not always well controlled. We have studied the evolution of Cu L2,3 and O K edge x-ray absorption spectra (XAS) of Sr1-xLaxCuO2 thin films as a function of reducing annealing, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Background Biologics containing growth factors are frequently used to enhance healing after musculoskeletal injuries. One mechanism of action is thought to be though the ability of biologics to induce homing and migration of endogenous mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to a target tissue. However, the ability of biologics to stimulate chemotaxis (directed migration of cells) and chemokinesis (increase rate of cell migration) of MSCs is unknown.

We present and analyze a protocol in which polaritons in a noncoplanar optical cavity form fractional quantum Hall states. We model the formation of these states and present techniques for subsequently creating anyons and measuring their fractional exchange statistics. In this protocol, we use a rapid adiabatic passage scheme to sequentially add polaritons to the system, such that the system is coherently driven from n- to (n+1)-particle Laughlin states. Quasiholes are created by slowly moving local pinning potentials in from outside the cloud.

The electronically excited states of methylene (CH2), ethylene (C2H4), butadiene (C4H6), hexatriene (C6H8), and ozone (O3) have long proven challenging due to their complex mixtures of static and dynamic correlations. The semistochastic heat-bath configuration interaction (SHCI) algorithm, which efficiently and systematically approaches the full configuration interaction (FCI) limit, is used to provide close approximations to the FCI energies in these systems.

We report measurements of the mechanical properties of two suspended graphene membranes in the temperature range of 80 K to 550 K. For this entire range, the resonant frequency and quality factor of each device were monitored continuously during cooling and heating. Below 300 K, we have additionally measured the resonant frequency's tunability via electrostatic force, and modeled this data to determine graphene's tension and elastic modulus; both of these parameters are found to be strongly temperature-dependent in this range.

Atomically thin semiconducting crystals [such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)] have outstanding electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, thus making them excellent constitutive materials for innovating new two-dimensional (2D) nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). Although prototype structures have recently been demonstrated toward functional devices such as ultralow-power, high-frequency tunable oscillators and ultrasensitive resonant transducers, both electrical tunability and large dynamic range (DR) are critical and desirable.