Sub-Hz Differential Rotational Spectroscopy of Enantiomers

We demonstrate for the first time high-precision differential microwave spectroscopy, achieving sub-Hz precision by coupling a cryogenic buffer gas cell with a tunable microwave Fabry–Perot cavity. We report statistically limited sub-Hz precision of (0.08 ± 0.72) Hz, observed between enantiopure samples of (R)-1,2-propanediol and (S)-1,2-propanediol at frequencies near 15 GHz. We confirm highly repeatable spectroscopic measurements compared to traditional pulsed-jet methods, opening up new capabilities in probing subtle molecular structural effects at the 10−10 level and providing a platform for exploring sources of systematic error in parity-violation searches. We discuss dominant systematic effects at this level and propose possible extensions of the technique for higher precision.

COVID-19 Disruption Strategy for Redesigning Global Supply Chain Network across TPP Countries

Background: COVID-19 has disrupted and adversely affected supply chains worldwide. A global supply chain network that considers disruptions is needed. This study strategically analyzes the economic and structural effects of disruption on a global supply chain network with customs duty and the trans-pacific partnership (TPP) agreement. Methods: We present a cost minimization model which helps in understanding the difficulty of supplying materials or products to factories or customers if the supplier’s cities are facing disruption. This enables us to model and evaluate simultaneous considerations of supplier disruption, customs duty, and TPP in redesigning a global supply chain network. This network is modeled and formulated using integer programming, disruption scenarios, and a sensitivity analysis for customs duty. Results: Regarding the impact of disruptions on suppliers, two patterns emerge in the reconfigured network: direct changes due to supplier disruptions and indirect changes due to factory relocation. The sensitivity analysis for customs duty shows that the TPP has a positive impact on cost maintained, even in the presence of disruptions. Conclusions: Suppliers should be switched depending on the scale of disruption; when many distant suppliers need to be switched, the factory should be relocated to the country where these suppliers are located.

Nuclear level densities away from line of β-stability

The variation of total nuclear level densities (NLDs) and level density parameters with proton number Z are studied around the β-stable isotope, Z0, for a given mass number. We perform our analysis for a mass range A=40 to 180 using the NLDs from popularly used databases obtained with the single-particle energies from two different microsopic mass-models. These NLDs which include microscopic structural effects such as collective enhancement, pairing and shell corrections, do not exhibit inverted parabolic trend with a strong peak at Z0 as predicted earlier. We also compute the NLDs using the single-particle energies from macroscopic-microscopic mass-model. Once the collective and pairing effects are ignored, the inverted parabolic trends of NLDs and the corresponding level density parameters become somewhat visible. Nevertheless, the factor that governs the (Z-Z0) dependence of the level density parameter, leading to the inverted parabolic trend, is found to be smaller by an order of magnitude. We further find that the (Z-Z0) dependence of NLDs is quite sensitive to the shell effects.

PRODUCT LIFE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY UNDER RADIATION EXPOSURE

The article proposes a method for calculating and experimental evaluation of the service life of products in the specified radiation conditions of outer space. The described method of estimating the resource of products takes into account the additive nature of ionization and structural effects in the specified radiation conditions of outer space. This method includes experimental and computa-tional stages.

Dispersed privatization of council housing: Some structural effects in the municipal housing stock in Olsztyn, Poland

Council (public) housing privatization, as the basic instrument for transforming housing systems, has significantly affected the tenure structure and created millions of new owners across Europe. In Poland, the concept of the dispersed privatization was adopted and implemented in the long term primarily through preferential sales of council dwellings from the municipal housing stock to sitting tenants. The aim of the study was to analyze the effects of the dispersed privatization of municipal dwellings in the spatial and ownership structure of the municipal housing stock of the city of Olsztyn in Poland. The results showed that poorly controlled processes of the dispersed privatization of municipal housing caused unfavorable structural effects in the surveyed housing stock. The stock has shrunk significantly, losing buildings in better locations and conditions and the undesired fragmentation of municipal ownership and its mixing with private ownership has increased. The results and proposals are important to other cities and countries facing the challenge of slow privatization of public housing.

Social-Ecological Peace – A framework to analyze the transition from violence to peace in post-conflict areas, applied to Aceh, Indonesia

While the analysis of peace often stops with "negative peace" in conflict studies (Shields 2017), critical structural analyses of a transition towards peace risk to analytically emphasize how wartime structures extend into post-conflict times (see e.g. Lee 2020). In this article, by engaging with the two fields of conflict studies and political ecology, a framework is developed that allows a critical analysis of resilient structures and discourses from times of conflict, as well as of possible leverage points that could support a transition towards what is here conceptualized as "social ecological peace". The framework hence helps to understand in how far dimensions of prior violence have transformed into peace, and if certain dimensions of violence have continued, even though they manifest themselves in a different way. The framework builds on Galtung’s conceptualization of violence and peace, but realigns "cultural violence" with Pierre Bourdieu's "symbolic violence". Additionally, for extending the framework with an ecological dimension and historical dimension, the notion of 'slow violence' by Rob Nixon is introduced. Applying the framework to Aceh, Indonesia, shows how cultural peace allows individuals to narrate and act out of a new identity, and in this way, enables them to put into effect structures of a new era of positivesocial-ecological peace. At the same time, discourses that are inherited from wartime and transform into peace time structures risk to carry violence in them. It becomes important to lay open the structural effects of the very discourses that have supported Aceh’s autonomy, so that they may not further extend structural violence into peace times. This is likely to remain a challenge in a context that is described as still negotiating and struggling to enhance its autonomy (Setyowati 2020a).

Structural Effects of Disease-Related Mutations in Actin-Binding Period 3 of Tropomyosin

Tropomyosin (Tpm) is an actin-binding coiled-coil protein. In muscle, it regulates contractions in a troponin/Ca2+-dependent manner and controls the thin filament lengths at the pointed end. Due to its size and periodic structure, it is difficult to observe small local structural changes in the coiled coil caused by disease-related mutations. In this study, we designed 97-residue peptides, Tpm1.164–154 and Tpm3.1265–155, focusing on the actin-binding period 3 of two muscle isoforms. Using these peptides, we evaluated the effects of cardiomyopathy mutations: I92T and V95A in Tpm1.1, and congenital myopathy mutations R91P and R91C in Tpm3.12. We introduced a cysteine at the N-terminus of each fragment to promote the formation of the coiled-coil structure by disulfide bonds. Dimerization of the designed peptides was confirmed by gel electrophoresis in the presence and absence of dithiothreitol. Using circular dichroism, we showed that all mutations decreased coiled coil stability, with Tpm3.1265–155R91P and Tpm1.164–154I92T having the most drastic effects. Our experiments also indicated that adding the N-terminal cysteine increased coiled coil stability demonstrating that our design can serve as an effective tool in studying the coiled-coil fragments of various proteins.