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1. Benchmarking embedded chain breaking in quantum annealing ^*

   https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/ac26d2  

   Thinh V. Le, Manh V. (March 2022, Quantum Science and Technology)

   Abstract Quantum annealing solves combinatorial optimization problems by finding the energetic ground states of an embedded Hamiltonian. However, quantum annealing dynamics under the embedded Hamiltonian may violate the principles of adiabatic evolution and generate excitations that correspond to errors in the computed solution. Here we empirically benchmark the probability of chain breaks and identify sweet spots for solving a suite of embedded Hamiltonians. We further correlate the physical location of chain breaks in the quantum annealing hardware with the underlying embedding technique and use these localized rates in a tailored post-processing strategies. Our results demonstrate how to use characterization of the quantum annealing hardware to tune the embedded Hamiltonian and remove computational errors. 

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2. Electron-Transfer Chain Catalysis of η ² -Arene, η ² -Alkene, and η ² -Ketone Exchange on Molybdenum

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.9b04191  

   Dakermanji, Steven J.; Smith, Jacob A.; Westendorff, Karl S.; Pert, Emmit K.; Chung, Andrew D.; Myers, Jeffery T.; Welch, Kevin D.; Dickie, Diane A.; Harman, W. Dean (October 2019, ACS Catalysis)
3. Influence of Peripheral and Ancillary Changes on the Electron Transport of ^HS 3d ⁵ Fe ^III Metallosurfactants – Substituents, Chain Length, Subphase Polarity, and Junction Electrodes

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c02249  

   Kirui, Gibson; Kaushalya, Widana; Perera, S Sameera; Walker, Alice R; Verani, Cláudio N (June 2024, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C)
4. Immobilized ¹³ C-labeled polyether chain ends confined to the crystallite surface detected by advanced NMR

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc0059  

   Yuan, Shichen; Schmidt-Rohr, Klaus (September 2020, Science Advances)

   null (Ed.)

   A comprehensive 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approach for characterizing the location of chain ends of polyethers and polyesters, at the crystallite surface or in the amorphous layers, is presented. The OH chain ends of polyoxymethylene are labeled with 13 COO-acetyl groups and their dynamics probed by 13 C NMR with chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) recoupling. At least three-quarters of the chain ends are not mobile dangling cilia but are immobilized, exhibiting a powder pattern characteristic of the crystalline environment and fast CSA dephasing. The location and clustering of the immobilized chain ends are analyzed by spin diffusion. Fast 1 H spin diffusion from the amorphous regions shows confinement of chain ends to the crystallite surface, corroborated by fast 13 C spin exchange between chain ends. These observations confirm the principle of avoidance of density anomalies, which requires that chains terminate at the crystallite surface to stay out of the crowded interfacial layer. 

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5. Exploration of the interaction between dynein intermediate chain and dynactin p150^Glued reveals a novel binding Interface

   https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.70242  

   Di_Nicola, A J; Romig, Bryn L; Davis, Stella M; Cleary, Paul H; Yung, Claire H; Marsan, Daniel R; Merkt, Anna C; Loening, Nikolaus M (August 2025, Protein Science)

   Cytoplasmic dynein is a motor protein that plays a role in a number of cellular processes including retrograde transport. In many cases, dynein needs to interact with another protein, dynactin, to be fully active. An important step in the assembly of the dynein/dynactin complex is the interaction between the N‐terminal portion of the intermediate chain (IC) subunit of dynein and the coiled‐coil 1B (CC1B) region of the p150^Glued subunit of dynactin. Despite evidence for this interaction from binding studies, the exact location of where these proteins bind has remained elusive due to the dynamic nature of the interaction and the presence of intrinsically disordered regions in IC. By using intermolecular paramagnetic relaxation enhancements, we have been able to constrain the location of IC binding on p150^Glued to a position that is different from what has recently been hypothesized in a model of the dynein/dynactin complex based on cryo‐electron microscopy (cryo‐EM) data and AlphaFold predictions. In addition, although phosphorylation is important for regulating dynein/dynactin interactions, we show that a phosphomimetic mutation of IC is not sufficient to alter binding with p150^Glued. 

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