Table-top combined scanning X-ray small angle scattering and transmission microscopies of lipid vesicles dispersed in free-standing gel

A mm thick free-standing gel containing lipid vesicles made of 2-oleoyl-1-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) was studied by scanning Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and X-ray Transmission (XT) microscopies. Raster scanning relatively large volumes, besides reducing the risk of radiation damage, allows signal integration, improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), as well as high statistical significance of the dataset. The persistence of lipid vesicles in gel was demonstrated, while mapping their spatial distribution and concentration gradients.

Inferring urban social networks from publicly available data

The definition of suitable generative models for synthetic yet realistic social networks is a widely studied problem in the literature. By not being tied to any real data, random graph models cannot capture all the subtleties of real networks and are inadequate for many practical contexts--including areas of research, such as computational epidemiology, which are recently high on the agenda.

A one-dimensional vertical ecosystem model for lake dynamics

We present a modified version of an existing lake ecosystem model, describing a trophic chain generated by nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton (NPZ model). The NPZ model takes into account the vertical dynamics of the biomasses of the main species. We tailor the model to specific ecosystems by including seasonality in the dynamics of the various compartments. Moreover, different species exhibit a different behaviour with respect to diffusion and to the rate of vertical movement.

Black hole geodesic parallel transport and the Marck reduction procedure

The Wigner rotations arising from the combination of boosts along two different directions arc rederived from a relative boost point of view and applied to study gyroscope spin precession along timelike geodesics in a Kerr spacetime. First this helps to clarify the geometrical properties of Marck's recipe for reducing the equations of parallel transport along such world lines expressed in terms of the constants of the motion to a single differential equation for the essential planar rotation.

Higher-order tail contributions to the energy and angular momentum fluxes in a two-body scattering process

The need for more and more accurate gravitational-wave templates requires taking into account all possible contributions to the emission of gravitational radiation from a binary system. Therefore, working within a multipolar-post-Minkowskian framework to describe the gravitational-wave field in terms of the source multipole moments, the dominant instantaneous effects should be supplemented by hereditary contributions arising from nonlinear interactions between the multipoles.

Identification of time-varying inaccessible thermal conductance from data at the boundary

A composite specimen, made of two slabs and an interface A is heated through one of its sides S, in order to evaluate the thermal conductance H of A. The direct model consists of a system of Initial Boundary Value Problems completed by suitable transmission conditions. Thanks to the properties of multilayer diffusion, we reduce the problem to the slab between A and S only. In this case evaluating the thermal resistance of A means to identify a coefficient in a Robin boundary condition. We evaluate H numerically by means of Thin Plate Approximation.

Three-stage multiscale modelling of the NMDA neuroreceptor

We present a new multistage method to study the N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) neuroreceptor starting from the reconstruction of its crystallographic structure. Thanks to the combination of Homology Modelling, Molecular Dynamics and Lattice Boltzmann simulations, we analyse the allosteric transition of NDMA upon ligand binding and compute the receptor response to ionic passage across the membrane.

Shearing effects on the phase coarsening of binary mixtures using the active model B

The phase separation of a two-dimensional active binary mixture is studied under the action of an applied shear through numerical simulations. It is highlighted how the strength of the external flow modifies the initial shape of growing domains. The activity is responsible for the formation of isolated droplets which affect both the coarsening dynamics and the morphology of the system. The characteristic dimensions of domains along the flow and the shear direction are modulated in time by oscillations whose amplitudes are reduced when the activity increases.

Diffusive limits of 2D well-balanced schemes for kinetic models of neutron transport

Two-dimensional dissipative and isotropic kinetic models, like the ones used in neutron transport theory, are considered. Especially, steady-states are expressed for constant opacity and damping, allowing to derive a scattering S-matrix and corresponding "truly 2D well-balanced" numerical schemes. A first scheme is obtained by directly implementing truncated Fourier-Bessel series, whereas another proceeds by applying an exponential modulation to a former, conservative, one. Consistency with the asymptotic damped parabolic approximation is checked for both algorithms.