The lipidic cubic mesophase has been used to crystallize important membrane proteins for high-resolution structure determination. To date, however, no integral membrane enzymes have yielded to this method, the in meso. For a crystal structure to be meaningful the target protein must be functional. Using the in meso method with a membrane enzyme requires that the protein is active in the mesopha...

Hydrated monoolein forms the cubic-Pn3m mesophase that has been used for in meso crystallization of membrane proteins. The crystals have subsequently provided high-resolution structures by crystallographic means. It is possible that the hosting cubic phase created by monoolein alone, which itself is not a common membrane component, will limit the range of membrane proteins crystallizable by the...

Using classical molecular dynamics with a more reliable reactive LCBOPII potential, we have performed a detailed study on the direct graphite-to-diamond phase transition. Our results reveal a new so-called "wave-like buckling and slipping" mechanism, which controls the transformation from hexagonal graphite to cubic diamond. Based on this mechanism, we have explained how polycrystalline cubic d...

Gd-HPDO3A, a neutral gadolinium complex, is a good candidate for obtaining heavy-atom-derivative crystals by the lipidic cubic phase crystallization method known to be effective for membrane proteins. Gadolinium-derivative crystals of hen egg-white lysozyme were obtained by co-crystallizing the protein with 100 mM Gd-HPDO3A in a monoolein cubic phase. Diffraction data were collected to a resolu...

Measurement of strain is an important application of digital holographic interferometry. As strain relates to the displacement derivative, it depends on the derivative of the interference phase corresponding to the reconstructed interference field. The paper proposes an elegant method for direct measurement of unwrapped phase derivative. The proposed method relies on approximating the interfere...

One of the most efficient approaches to design the properties of a material is through the control of its phase transformations and microstructure evolution. The processes involved in a phase transformation are inherently multiscale. It starts with the nucleation of nanoscale nuclei of new phase particles, followed by growth and particle impingement or coarsening. In our recent works, we have d...

Fabricating all-ceramic restorations with minimal or no application of a secondary phase while maintaining esthetics has been a sought-after goal of the dental profession. The objective has been development of a monolithic material with optical properties similar to the natural tooth without the need for layering porcelain. This article examines some of the newer cubic zirconia materials used i...

Bulk and dispersed cubic liquid crystalline phases (cubosomes), present in the body and in living cell membranes, are believed to play an essential role in biological phenomena. Moreover, their biocompatibility is attractive for nutrient or drug delivery system applications. Here the three-dimensional organization of dispersed cubic lipid self-assembled phases is fully revealed by cryo-electron...

Using density functional molecular dynamics free energy calculations, we show that the body centered cubic (bcc) phase of superionic ice previously believed to be the only phase is, in fact, thermodynamically unstable compared to a novel phase with oxygen positions in face centered cubic lattice sites. The novel phase has a lower proton mobility than the bcc phase and may exhibit a higher melti...

This work presents a new type of polarization-free GaN emitter. The unique aspect of this work is that the ultraviolet and visible emission originates from the cubic phase GaN and the cubic phase InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-wells, respectively. Conventionally, GaN emitters (e.g. light emitting diodes, laser diodes) are wurtzite phase thus strong polarization fields exist across the structure contri...