60,549 research outputs found
The characterization and evaluation of accidental explosions
Accidental explosions are discussed from a number of viewpoints. First, all accidental explosions, intentional explosions and natural explosions are characterized by type. Second, the nature of the blast wave produced by an ideal (point source or HE) explosion is discussed to form a basis for describing how other explosion processes yield deviations from ideal blast wave behavior. The current status blast damage mechanism evaluation is also discussed. Third, the current status of our understanding of each different category of accidental explosions is discussed in some detail
The influence of receptor-mediated interactions on reaction-diffusion mechanisms of cellular self-organisation
Understanding the mechanisms governing and regulating self-organisation in the developing embryo is a key challenge that has puzzled and fascinated scientists for decades. Since its conception in 1952 the Turing model has been a paradigm for pattern formation, motivating numerous theoretical and experimental studies, though its verification at the molecular level in biological systems has remained elusive. In this work, we consider the influence of receptor-mediated dynamics within the framework of Turing models, showing how non-diffusing species impact the conditions for the emergence of self-organisation. We illustrate our results within the framework of hair follicle pre-patterning, showing how receptor interaction structures can be constrained by the requirement for patterning, without the need for detailed knowledge of the network dynamics. Finally, in the light of our results, we discuss the ability of such systems to pattern outside the classical limits of the Turing model, and the inherent dangers involved in model reduction
Power spectra methods for a stochastic description of diffusion on deterministically growing domains
A central challenge in developmental biology is understanding the creation of robust spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Generally, the mathematical treatments of biological systems have used continuum, mean-field hypotheses for their constituent parts, which ignores any sources of intrinsic stochastic effects. In this paper we consider a stochastic space-jump process as a description of diffusion, i.e., particles are able to undergo a random walk on a discretized domain. By developing analytical Fourier methods we are able to probe this probabilistic framework, which gives us insight into the patterning potential of diffusive systems. Further, an alternative description of domain growth is introduced, with which we are able to rigorously link the mean-field and stochastic descriptions. Finally, through combining these ideas, it is shown that such stochastic descriptions of diffusion on a deterministically growing domain are able to support the nucleation of states that are far removed from the deterministic mean-field steady state
Stochastic reaction & diffusion on growing domains: understanding the breakdown of robust pattern formation
Many biological patterns, from population densities to animal coat markings, can be thought of as heterogeneous spatiotemporal distributions of mobile agents. Many mathematical models have been proposed to account for the emergence of this complexity, but, in general, they have consisted of deterministic systems of differential equations, which do not take into account the stochastic nature of population interactions. One particular, pertinent criticism of these deterministic systems is that the exhibited patterns can often be highly sensitive to changes in initial conditions, domain geometry, parameter values, etc. Due to this sensitivity, we seek to understand the effects of stochasticity and growth on paradigm biological patterning models. In this paper, we extend spatial Fourier analysis and growing domain mapping techniques to encompass stochastic Turing systems. Through this we find that the stochastic systems are able to realize much richer dynamics than their deterministic counterparts, in that patterns are able to exist outside the standard Turing parameter range. Further, it is seen that the inherent stochasticity in the reactions appears to be more important than the noise generated by growth, when considering which wave modes are excited. Finally, although growth is able to generate robust pattern sequences in the deterministic case, we see that stochastic effects destroy this mechanism for conferring robustness. However, through Fourier analysis we are able to suggest a reason behind this lack of robustness and identify possible mechanisms by which to reclaim it
Influence of stochastic domain growth on pattern nucleation for diffusive systems with internal noise
Numerous mathematical models exploring the emergence of complexity within developmental biology incorporate diffusion as the dominant mechanism of transport. However, self-organizing paradigms can exhibit the biologically undesirable property of extensive sensitivity, as illustrated by the behavior of the French-flag model in response to intrinsic noise and Turing’s model when subjected to fluctuations in initial conditions. Domain growth is known to be a stabilizing factor for the latter, though the interaction of intrinsic noise and domain growth is underexplored, even in the simplest of biophysical settings. Previously, we developed analytical Fourier methods and a description of domain growth that allowed us to characterize the effects of deterministic domain growth on stochastically diffusing systems. In this paper we extend our analysis to encompass stochastically growing domains. This form of growth can be used only to link the meso- and macroscopic domains as the “box-splitting” form of growth on the microscopic scale has an ill-defined thermodynamic limit. The extension is achieved by allowing the simulated particles to undergo random walks on a discretized domain, while stochastically controlling the length of each discretized compartment. Due to the dependence of diffusion on the domain discretization, we find that the description of diffusion cannot be uniquely derived. We apply these analytical methods to two justified descriptions, where it is shown that, under certain conditions, diffusion is able to support a consistent inhomogeneous state that is far removed from the deterministic equilibrium, without additional kinetics. Finally, a logistically growing domain is considered. Not only does this show that we can deal with nonmonotonic descriptions of stochastic growth, but it is also seen that diffusion on a stationary domain produces different effects to diffusion on a domain that is stationary “on average.
Method for comparing finite temperature field theory results with lattice data
The values of the presently available truncated perturbative expressions for
the pressure of the quark-gluon plasma at finite temperatures and finite
chemical potential are trustworthy only at very large energies. When used down
to temperatures close to the critical one Tc, they suffer from large
uncertainties due to the renormalization scale freedom. In order to reduce
these uncertainties, we perform resummations of the pressure by applying
Pade-related approximants to the available perturbation series for the
short-distance and for the long-distance contributions. In the two
contributions, we use two different renormalization scales which reflect
different energy regions contributing to the different parts. Application of
the obtained expressions at low temperatures is made possible by replacing the
usual four-loop barMS beta function for alpha_s by its Borel-Pade resummation,
eliminating thus the unphysical Landau singularities of alpha_s. The obtained
results are remarkably insensitive to the chosen renormalization scale and can
be compared with lattice results -- for the pressure (p), the chemical
potential contribution (delta p) to the pressure, and various susceptibilities.
A good qualitative agreement with the lattice results is revealed down to
temperatures close to Tc.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures, revtex4; Ref.[25] is new; the ordering of the
references and grammatic and stylistic errors are corrected - version as it
appears in PR
Static electricity in the Apollo spacecraft
Static electricity ignition hazards in Apollo spacecraf
Gravitational waves from black hole collisions via an eclectic approach
We present the first results in a new program intended to make the best use
of all available technologies to provide an effective understanding of waves
from inspiralling black hole binaries in time for imminent observations. In
particular, we address the problem of combining the close-limit approximation
describing ringing black holes and full numerical relativity, required for
essentially nonlinear interactions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our
approach using general methods for a model problem, the head-on collision of
black holes. Our method allows a more direct physical understanding of these
collisions indicating clearly when non-linear methods are important. The
success of this method supports our expectation that this unified approach will
be able to provide astrophysically relevant results for black hole binaries in
time to assist gravitational wave observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figures, Revte
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