695 research outputs found
Protein multi-scale organization through graph partitioning and robustness analysis: Application to the myosin-myosin light chain interaction
Despite the recognized importance of the multi-scale spatio-temporal
organization of proteins, most computational tools can only access a limited
spectrum of time and spatial scales, thereby ignoring the effects on protein
behavior of the intricate coupling between the different scales. Starting from
a physico-chemical atomistic network of interactions that encodes the structure
of the protein, we introduce a methodology based on multi-scale graph
partitioning that can uncover partitions and levels of organization of proteins
that span the whole range of scales, revealing biological features occurring at
different levels of organization and tracking their effect across scales.
Additionally, we introduce a measure of robustness to quantify the relevance of
the partitions through the generation of biochemically-motivated surrogate
random graph models. We apply the method to four distinct conformations of
myosin tail interacting protein, a protein from the molecular motor of the
malaria parasite, and study properties that have been experimentally addressed
such as the closing mechanism, the presence of conserved clusters, and the
identification through computational mutational analysis of key residues for
binding.Comment: 13 pages, 7 Postscript figure
Stability of graph communities across time scales
The complexity of biological, social and engineering networks makes it
desirable to find natural partitions into communities that can act as
simplified descriptions and provide insight into the structure and function of
the overall system. Although community detection methods abound, there is a
lack of consensus on how to quantify and rank the quality of partitions. We
show here that the quality of a partition can be measured in terms of its
stability, defined in terms of the clustered autocovariance of a Markov process
taking place on the graph. Because the stability has an intrinsic dependence on
time scales of the graph, it allows us to compare and rank partitions at each
time and also to establish the time spans over which partitions are optimal.
Hence the Markov time acts effectively as an intrinsic resolution parameter
that establishes a hierarchy of increasingly coarser clusterings. Within our
framework we can then provide a unifying view of several standard partitioning
measures: modularity and normalized cut size can be interpreted as one-step
time measures, whereas Fiedler's spectral clustering emerges at long times. We
apply our method to characterize the relevance and persistence of partitions
over time for constructive and real networks, including hierarchical graphs and
social networks. We also obtain reduced descriptions for atomic level protein
structures over different time scales.Comment: submitted; updated bibliography from v
HIV-2 viral production and infectivity are affected by APO3 host factors
Poster presented at the 7th Postgraduate iMed.ULisboa Students Meeting. Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, 15-16 July 2015.Egas Moniz - Cooperativa de Ensino Superior CRL and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Lisbon, Portuga
Low-Temperature Excitations of Dilute Lattice Spin Glasses
A new approach to exploring low-temperature excitations in finite-dimensional
lattice spin glasses is proposed. By focusing on bond-diluted lattices just
above the percolation threshold, large system sizes can be obtained which
lead to enhanced scaling regimes and more accurate exponents. Furthermore, this
method in principle remains practical for any dimension, yielding exponents
that so far have been elusive. This approach is demonstrated by determining the
stiffness exponent for dimensions , (the upper critical dimension),
and . Key is the application of an exact reduction algorithm, which
eliminates a large fraction of spins, so that the reduced lattices never exceed
variables for sizes as large as L=30 in , L=9 in , or L=8
in . Finite size scaling analysis gives for ,
significantly improving on previous work. The results for and ,
and , are entirely new and are compared with
mean-field predictions made for d>=6.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, 7 ps-figures included, added result for stiffness in
d=7, as to appear in Europhysics Letters (see
http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher/ for related information
Fractal Droplets in Two Dimensional Spin Glasses
The two-dimensional Edwards-Anderson model with Gaussian bond distribution is
investigated at T=0 with a numerical method. Droplet excitations are directly
observed. It turns out that the averaged volume of droplets is proportional to
l^D with D = 1.80(2) where l is the spanning length of droplets, revealing
their fractal nature. The exponent characterizing the l dependence of the
droplet excitation energy is estimated to be -0.42(4), clearly different from
the stiffness exponent for domain wall excitations.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure
Flow graphs: interweaving dynamics and structure
The behavior of complex systems is determined not only by the topological
organization of their interconnections but also by the dynamical processes
taking place among their constituents. A faithful modeling of the dynamics is
essential because different dynamical processes may be affected very
differently by network topology. A full characterization of such systems thus
requires a formalization that encompasses both aspects simultaneously, rather
than relying only on the topological adjacency matrix. To achieve this, we
introduce the concept of flow graphs, namely weighted networks where dynamical
flows are embedded into the link weights. Flow graphs provide an integrated
representation of the structure and dynamics of the system, which can then be
analyzed with standard tools from network theory. Conversely, a structural
network feature of our choice can also be used as the basis for the
construction of a flow graph that will then encompass a dynamics biased by such
a feature. We illustrate the ideas by focusing on the mathematical properties
of generic linear processes on complex networks that can be represented as
biased random walks and also explore their dual consensus dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
APOBEC3 host factors modulate viral production and infectivity of HIV-2
Poster presented at the 15th European AIDS Conference/EACS. Barcelona, 21-24 October 2015.This work was funded by FCT – SFRH/BD/81921/2011 and Egas Moniz, Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, CRL,
Portugal
Physical consequences of PNP and the DMRG-annealing conjecture
Computational complexity theory contains a corpus of theorems and conjectures
regarding the time a Turing machine will need to solve certain types of
problems as a function of the input size. Nature {\em need not} be a Turing
machine and, thus, these theorems do not apply directly to it. But {\em
classical simulations} of physical processes are programs running on Turing
machines and, as such, are subject to them. In this work, computational
complexity theory is applied to classical simulations of systems performing an
adiabatic quantum computation (AQC), based on an annealed extension of the
density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). We conjecture that the
computational time required for those classical simulations is controlled
solely by the {\em maximal entanglement} found during the process. Thus, lower
bounds on the growth of entanglement with the system size can be provided. In
some cases, quantum phase transitions can be predicted to take place in certain
inhomogeneous systems. Concretely, physical conclusions are drawn from the
assumption that the complexity classes {\bf P} and {\bf NP} differ. As a
by-product, an alternative measure of entanglement is proposed which, via
Chebyshev's inequality, allows to establish strict bounds on the required
computational time.Comment: Accepted for publication in JSTA
Transitions of care across hospital settings in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, inflammatory disorder characterised by both intestinal and extra-intestinal pathology. Patients may receive both emergency and elective care from several providers, often in different hospital settings. Poorly managed transitions of care between providers can lead to inefficiencies in care and patient safety issues. To ensure that the sharing of patient information between providers is appropriate, timely, accurate and secure, effective data-sharing infrastructure needs to be developed. To optimise inter-hospital data-sharing for IBD patients, we need to better understand patterns of hospital encounters in this group. AIM To determine the type and location of hospital services accessed by IBD patients in England. METHODS This was a retrospective observational study using Hospital Episode Statistics, a large administrative patient data set from the National Health Service in England. Adult patients with a diagnosis of IBD following admission to hospital were followed over a 2-year period to determine the proportion of care accessed at the same hospital providing their outpatient IBD care, defined as their ‘home provider’. Secondary outcome measures included the geographic distribution of patient-sharing, regional and age-related differences in accessing services, and type and frequency of outpatient encounters. RESULTS Of 95055 patients accessed hospital services on 1760156 occasions over a 2-year follow-up period. The proportion of these encounters with their identified IBD ‘home provider’ was 73.3%, 87.8% and 83.1% for accident and emergency, inpatient and outpatient encounters respectively. Patients living in metropolitan centres and younger patients were less likely to attend their ‘home provider’ for hospital services. The most commonly attended specialty services were gastroenterology, general surgery and ophthalmology. CONCLUSION Transitions of care between secondary care settings are common for patients with IBD. Effective systems of data-sharing and care integration are essential to providing safe and effective care for patients. Geographic and age-related patterns of care transitions identified in this study may be used to guide interventions aimed at improving continuity of care
No spin-glass transition in the "mobile-bond" model
The recently introduced ``mobile-bond'' model for two-dimensional spin
glasses is studied. The model is characterized by an annealing temperature T_q.
On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations of small systems it has been claimed
that this model exhibits a non-trivial spin-glass transition at finite
temperature for small values of T_q.
Here the model is studied by means of exact ground-state calculations of
large systems up to N=256^2. The scaling of domain-wall energies is
investigated as a function of the system size. For small values T_q<0.95 the
system behaves like a (gauge-transformed) ferromagnet having a small fraction
of frustrated plaquettes. For T_q>=0.95 the system behaves like the standard
two-dimensional +-J spin-glass, i.e. it does NOT exhibit a phase transition at
T>0.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTe
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