Assessing soybean leaf area and leaf biomass by spectral measurements

Red and photographic infrared spectral radiances were correlated with soybean total leaf area index, green leaf area index, chlorotic leaf area index, green leaf biomass, chlorotic leaf biomass, and total biomass. The most significant correlations were found to exist between the IR/red radiance ratio data and green leaf area index and/or green leaf biomass (r squared equals 0.85 and 0.86, respectively). These findings demonstrate that remote sensing data can supply information basic to soybean canopy growth, development, and status by nondestructive determination of the green leaf area or green leaf biomass

Predicting rare events in chemical reactions: application to skin cell proliferation

In a well-stirred system undergoing chemical reactions, fluctuations in the reaction propensities are approximately captured by the corresponding chemical Langevin equation. Within this context, we discuss in this work how the Kramers escape theory can be used to predict rare events in chemical reactions. As an example, we apply our approach to a recently proposed model on cell proliferation with relevance to skin cancer [P.B. Warren, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 80}, 030903 (2009)]. In particular, we provide an analytical explanation for the form of the exponential exponent observed in the onset rate of uncontrolled cell proliferation.Comment: New materials and references added. To appear in Physical Review

Protein-mediated DNA Loop Formation and Breakdown in a Fluctuating Environment

Living cells provide a fluctuating, out-of-equilibrium environment in which genes must coordinate cellular function. DNA looping, which is a common means of regulating transcription, is very much a stochastic process; the loops arise from the thermal motion of the DNA and other fluctuations of the cellular environment. We present single-molecule measurements of DNA loop formation and breakdown when an artificial fluctuating force, applied to mimic a fluctuating cellular environment, is imposed on the DNA. We show that loop formation is greatly enhanced in the presence of noise of only a fraction of $k_B T$, yet find that hypothetical regulatory schemes that employ mechanical tension in the DNA--as a sensitive switch to control transcription--can be surprisingly robust due to a fortuitous cancellation of noise effects

Economical quantum cloning in any dimension

The possibility of cloning a d-dimensional quantum system without an ancilla is explored, extending on the economical phase-covariant cloning machine found in [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 60}, 2764 (1999)] for qubits. We prove the impossibility of constructing an economical version of the optimal universal cloning machine in any dimension. We also show, using an ansatz on the generic form of cloning machines, that the d-dimensional phase-covariant cloner, which optimally clones all uniform superpositions, can be realized economically only in dimension d=2. The used ansatz is supported by numerical evidence up to d=7. An economical phase-covariant cloner can nevertheless be constructed for d>2, albeit with a lower fidelity than that of the optimal cloner requiring an ancilla. Finally, using again an ansatz on cloning machines, we show that an economical version of the Fourier-covariant cloner, which optimally clones the computational basis and its Fourier transform, is also possible only in dimension d=2.Comment: 8 pages RevTe

The critical Ising lines of the d=2 Ashkin-Teller model

The universal critical point ratio $Q$ is exploited to determine positions of the critical Ising transition lines on the phase diagram of the Ashkin-Teller (AT) model on the square lattice. A leading-order expansion of the ratio $Q$ in the presence of a non-vanishing thermal field is found from finite-size scaling and the corresponding expression is fitted to the accurate perturbative transfer-matrix data calculations for the $L\times L$ square clusters with $L\leq 9$.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, two figure

A Spin - 3/2 Ising Model on a Square Lattice

The spin - 3/2 Ising model on a square lattice is investigated. It is shown that this model is reducible to an eight - vertex model on a surface in the parameter space spanned by coupling constants J, K, L and M. It is shown that this model is equivalent to an exactly solvable free fermion model along two lines in the parameter space.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 1 figure upon request; JETP Letters, in pres