2,094 research outputs found
Symptomatic adrenal insufficiency during inhaled corticosteroid treatment
Symptomatic adrenal insufficiency, presenting
as hypoglycaemia or poor weight
gain, may occur on withdrawal of corticosteroid
treatment but has not previously
been reported during inhaled corticosteroid
treatment. This case series illustrates
the occurence of clinically
significant adrenal insufficiency in asthmatic
children while patients were on
inhaled corticosteroid treatment and the
unexpected modes of presentation. General
practitioners and paediatricians need
to be aware that this unusual but acute
serious complication may occur in patients
treated
Energy Landscape and Global Optimization for a Frustrated Model Protein
The three-color (BLN) 69-residue model protein was designed to exhibit frustrated folding. We investigate the energy landscape of this protein using disconnectivity graphs and compare it to a Go model, which is designed to reduce the frustration by removing all non-native attractive interactions. Finding the global minimum on a frustrated energy landscape is a good test of global optimization techniques, and we present calculations evaluating the performance of basin-hopping and genetic algorithms for this system.Comparisons are made with the widely studied 46-residue BLN protein.We show that the energy landscape of the 69-residue BLN protein contains several deep funnels, each of which corresponds to a different ÎČ-barrel structure
Topological methods for searching barriers and reaction paths
We present a family of algorithms for the fast determination of reaction
paths and barriers in phase space and the computation of the corresponding
rates. The method requires the reaction times be large compared to the
microscopic time, irrespective of the origin - energetic, entropic, cooperative
- of the timescale separation. It lends itself to temperature cycling as in
simulated annealing and to activation-relaxation routines. The dynamics is
ultimately based on supersymmetry methods used years ago to derive Morse
theory. Thus, the formalism automatically incorporates all relevant topological
information.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTex
The Energy Landscape, Folding Pathways and the Kinetics of a Knotted Protein
The folding pathway and rate coefficients of the folding of a knotted protein
are calculated for a potential energy function with minimal energetic
frustration. A kinetic transition network is constructed using the discrete
path sampling approach, and the resulting potential energy surface is
visualized by constructing disconnectivity graphs. Owing to topological
constraints, the low-lying portion of the landscape consists of three distinct
regions, corresponding to the native knotted state and to configurations where
either the N- or C-terminus is not yet folded into the knot. The fastest
folding pathways from denatured states exhibit early formation of the
N-terminus portion of the knot and a rate-determining step where the C-terminus
is incorporated. The low-lying minima with the N-terminus knotted and the
C-terminus free therefore constitute an off-pathway intermediate for this
model. The insertion of both the N- and C-termini into the knot occur late in
the folding process, creating large energy barriers that are the rate limiting
steps in the folding process. When compared to other protein folding proteins
of a similar length, this system folds over six orders of magnitude more
slowly.Comment: 19 page
Are there localized saddles behind the heterogeneous dynamics of supercooled liquids?
We numerically study the interplay between heterogeneous dynamics and
properties of negatively curved regions of the potential energy surface in a
model glassy system. We find that the unstable modes of saddles and
quasi-saddles undergo a localization transition close to the Mode-Coupling
critical temperature. We also find evidence of a positive spatial correlation
between clusters of particles having large displacements in the unstable modes
and dynamical heterogeneities.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Europhys. Let
Local Properties of the Potential Energy Landscape of a Model Glass: Understanding the Low Temperature Anomalies
Though the existence of two-level systems (TLS) is widely accepted to explain
low temperature anomalies in the sound absorption, heat capacity, thermal
conductivity and other quantities, an exact description of their microscopic
nature is still lacking. We performed computer simulations for a binary
Lennard-Jones system, using a newly developed algorithm to locate double-well
potentials (DWP) and thus two-level systems on a systematic basis. We show that
the intrinsic limitations of computer simulations like finite time and finite
size problems do not hamper this analysis. We discuss how the DWP are embedded
in the total potential energy landscape. It turns out that most DWP are
connected to the dynamics of the smaller particles and that these DWP are
rather localized. However, DWP related to the larger particles are more
collective
Why do gallium clusters have a higher melting point than the bulk?
Density functional molecular dynamical simulations have been performed on
Ga and Ga clusters to understand the recently observed
higher-than-bulk melting temperatures in small gallium clusters [Breaux {\em et
al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 91}, 215508 (2003)]. The specific-heat curve,
calculated with the multiple-histogram technique, shows the melting temperature
to be well above the bulk melting point of 303 K, viz. around 650 K and 1400 K
for Ga and Ga, respectively. The higher-than-bulk melting
temperatures are attributed mainly to the covalent bonding in these clusters,
in contrast with the covalent-metallic bonding in the bulk.Comment: 4 pages, including 6 figures. accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Let
Elementary transitions and magnetic correlations in two-dimensional disordered nanoparticle ensembles
The magnetic relaxation processes in disordered two-dimensional ensembles of
dipole-coupled magnetic nanoparticles are theoretically investigated by
performing numerical simulations. The energy landscape of the system is
explored by determining saddle points, adjacent local minima, energy barriers,
and the associated minimum energy paths (MEPs) as functions of the structural
disorder and particle density. The changes in the magnetic order of the
nanostructure along the MEPs connecting adjacent minima are analyzed from a
local perspective. In particular, we determine the extension of the correlated
region where the directions of the particle magnetic moments vary
significantly. It is shown that with increasing degree of disorder the magnetic
correlation range decreases, i.e., the elementary relaxation processes become
more localized. The distribution of the energy barriers, and their relation to
the changes in the magnetic configurations are quantified. Finally, some
implications for the long-time magnetic relaxation dynamics of nanostructures
are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure
Hysteretic Optimization For Spin Glasses
The recently proposed Hysteretic Optimization (HO) procedure is applied to
the 1D Ising spin chain with long range interactions. To study its
effectiveness, the quality of ground state energies found as a function of the
distance dependence exponent, , is assessed. It is found that the
transition from an infinite-range to a long-range interaction at
is accompanied by a sharp decrease in the performance . The transition is
signaled by a change in the scaling behavior of the average avalanche size
observed during the hysteresis process. This indicates that HO requires the
system to be infinite-range, with a high degree of interconnectivity between
variables leading to large avalanches, in order to function properly. An
analysis of the way auto-correlations evolve during the optimization procedure
confirm that the search of phase space is less efficient, with the system
becoming effectively stuck in suboptimal configurations much earlier. These
observations explain the poor performance that HO obtained for the
Edwards-Anderson spin glass on finite-dimensional lattices, and suggest that
its usefulness might be limited in many combinatorial optimization problems.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. To appear in JSTAT. Author website:
http://www.bgoncalves.co
How glassy are orientational dynamics of rodlike molecules near the isotropic-nematic transition?
In an attempt to quantitatively characterize the recently observed slow
dynamics in the isotropic and nematic phase of liquid crystals, we investigate
the single-particle orientational dynamics of rodlike molecules across the
isotropic-nematic transition in computer simulations of a family of model
systems of thermotropic liquid crystals. Several remarkable features of glassy
dynamics are on display including non-exponential relaxation, dynamical
heterogeneity, and non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the orientational
relaxation time. In order to obtain a quantitative measure of glassy dynamics
in line with the estbalished methods in supercooled liquids, we construct a
relaxation time versus scaled inverse temperature plot, and demonstrate that
one can indeed define a 'fragility index' for thermotropic liquid crystals,
that depends on density and aspect ratio. The values of the fragility parameter
are surprisingly in the range one observed for glass forming liquids. A
plausible correlation between the energy landscape features and the observed
fragility is discussed.Comment: 7 figures and 8 page
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