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Solid–liquid interfaces are ubiquitous in scientifically and technologically important systems, and they govern complex chemophysical processes such as those in electrochemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. Atomic‐level elucidation of interfacial structures has been extensively pursued; however, related research is still limited. A major obstacle lies in the intrinsic character of interfaces: they are located between two bulk phases that make the application of spectroscopic or surface‐science techniques be difficult. Although this suggests the possibility of employing computational approaches to explore interfacial structures, modern molecular simulation methods suffer from an inability to simulate large interfacial systems in a sufficient time scale at the all‐atom resolution. To develop a method capable of simulating solid–liquid interfaces, we have been developing a mean‐field quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method. This Review briefly summarizes the theoretical background of mean‐field QM/MM, as well as recent efforts to advance it. Furthermore, we summarize several studies performed based on this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environments experienced during development have long‐lasting consequences for adult performance and fitness. The "environmental matching" hypothesis predicts that individuals perform best when adult and developmental environments match whereas the "silver spoon" hypothesis expects that fitness is higher in individuals developed under favorable environments regardless of adult environments. Temperature and nutrition are the two most influential determinants of environmental quality, but it remains to be elucidated which of these hypotheses better explains the long‐term effects of thermal and nutritional histories on adult fitness traits. Here we compared how the temperature and nutrition of larval environment would affect adult survivorship and reproductive success in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The aspect of nutrition focused on in this study was the dietary protein‐to‐carbohydrate (P:C) ratio. The impact of low developmental and adult temperature was to improve adult survivorship. High P:C diet had a negative effect on adult survivorship when ingested during the adult stage, but had a positive effect when ingested during development. No matter whether adult and developmental environments matched or not, females raised in warm and protein‐enriched environments produced more eggs than those raised in cool and protein‐limiting environments, suggesting the presence of a significant silver spoon effect of larval temperature and nutrition. The effect of larval temperature on adult egg production was weak but persisted across the early adult stage whereas that of larval nutrition was initially strong but diminished rapidly after day 5 posteclosion. Egg production after day 5 was strongly influenced by the P:C ratio of the adult diet, indicating that the diet contributing mainly to reproduction had shifted from larval to adult diet. Our results highlight the importance of thermal and nutritional histories in shaping organismal performance and fitness and also demonstrate how the silver spoon effects of these aspects of environmental histories differ fundamentally in their nature, strength, and persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a key model insect for studying life span and aging. Many laboratory strains of D. melanogaster are currently used by laboratories worldwide, but they are known to vary considerably in their physiology, behavior, and life histories. Although the importance of dietary protein:carbohydrate (P:C) balance as a predominant determinant of life span and other life‐history traits has been highlighted in recent research, it remains unexplored whether the impacts of P:C balance on these fitness‐related traits vary in a strain‐specific manner in D. melanogaster. In this study, we compared the life‐history consequences (life span, egg production rate, pre‐adult survival, development time, and body mass at eclosion) of six laboratory strains of D. melanogaster (w1118, yw, Oregon‐R, white Canton‐S, Canton‐S‐SNU, and Canton‐S‐Inha) allocated to one of four synthetic diets differing in P:C ratio (1:16, 1:4, 1:1, or 4:1). The effects of dietary P:C balance on various adult and larval life‐history traits were qualitatively similar across all strains studied in this study. Regardless of fly strain, adults exhibited a shortened life span and improved egg production on a diet with the highest P:C ratio of 4:1. In all strains, larvae raised on a diet comprising the lowest P:C ratio of 1:16 suffered high mortality, delayed development time, and reduced body mass. Despite the general similarity in the direction of the effect of P:C balance across strains, fly strains differed in the magnitude of their life‐history responses to dietary P:C balance, as indicated by a significant interaction between fly strain and dietary P:C ratio for all measured traits except body mass at eclosion. Possible mechanisms explaining such strain‐specific responses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]