177 research outputs found
Evaluation of in-situ shrinkage and expansion properties of polymer composite materials for adhesive anchor systems by a novel approach based on digital image correlation
The curing reaction of thermosetting resins is associated with chemical shrinkage which is overlapped with
thermal expansion as a result of the exothermal enthalpy. Final material properties of the polymer are determined
by this critical process. For adhesive anchor systems the overall shrinkage behavior of the material is
very important for the ultimate bond behavior between adhesive and the borehole wall. An approach for the insitu
measurement of 3-dimensional shrinkage and thermal expansion with digital image correlation (DIC) is
presented, overcoming the common limitation of DIC to solids. Two polymer-based anchor systems (filled epoxy,
vinylester) were investigated and models were developed, showing good agreement with experimental results.
Additionally, measurements with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) provided supporting information about
the curing reaction. The vinylester system showed higher shrinkage but much faster reaction compared to the
investigated epoxy
Random walks of molecular motors arising from diffusional encounters with immobilized filaments
Movements of molecular motors on cytoskeletal filaments are described by
directed walks on a line. Detachment from this line is allowed to occur with a
small probability. Motion in the surrounding fluid is described by symmetric
random walks. Effects of detachment and reattachment are calculated by an
analytical solution of the master equation in two and three dimensions. Results
are obtained for the fraction of bound motors, their average velocity and
displacement. The diffusion coefficient parallel to the filament becomes
anomalously large since detachment and subsequent reattachment, in the presence
of directed motion of the bound motors, leads to a broadening of the density
distribution.
The occurrence of protofilaments on a microtubule is modeled by internal
states of the binding sites. After a transient time all protofilaments become
equally populated.Comment: 20 pages Phys Rev E format + 11 figure
Simple Wriggling is Hard unless You Are a Fat Hippo
We prove that it is NP-hard to decide whether two points in a polygonal
domain with holes can be connected by a wire. This implies that finding any
approximation to the shortest path for a long snake amidst polygonal obstacles
is NP-hard. On the positive side, we show that snake's problem is
"length-tractable": if the snake is "fat", i.e., its length/width ratio is
small, the shortest path can be computed in polynomial time.Comment: A shorter version is to be presented at FUN 201
Direct Observation of the Myosin Va Recovery Stroke That Contributes to Unidirectional Stepping along Actin
Myosins are ATP-driven linear molecular motors that work as cellular force
generators, transporters, and force sensors. These functions are driven by
large-scale nucleotide-dependent conformational changes, termed
“strokes”; the “power stroke” is the force-generating
swinging of the myosin light chain–binding “neck” domain
relative to the motor domain “head” while bound to actin; the
“recovery stroke” is the necessary initial motion that primes, or
“cocks,” myosin while detached from actin. Myosin Va is a processive
dimer that steps unidirectionally along actin following a “hand over
hand” mechanism in which the trailing head detaches and steps forward
∼72 nm. Despite large rotational Brownian motion of the detached head about
a free joint adjoining the two necks, unidirectional stepping is achieved, in
part by the power stroke of the attached head that moves the joint forward.
However, the power stroke alone cannot fully account for preferential forward
site binding since the orientation and angle stability of the detached head,
which is determined by the properties of the recovery stroke, dictate actin
binding site accessibility. Here, we directly observe the recovery stroke
dynamics and fluctuations of myosin Va using a novel, transient caged
ATP-controlling system that maintains constant ATP levels through stepwise
UV-pulse sequences of varying intensity. We immobilized the neck of monomeric
myosin Va on a surface and observed real time motions of bead(s) attached
site-specifically to the head. ATP induces a transient swing of the neck to the
post-recovery stroke conformation, where it remains for ∼40 s, until ATP
hydrolysis products are released. Angle distributions indicate that the
post-recovery stroke conformation is stabilized by ≥5
kBT of energy. The high kinetic
and energetic stability of the post-recovery stroke conformation favors
preferential binding of the detached head to a forward site 72 nm away. Thus,
the recovery stroke contributes to unidirectional stepping of myosin Va
Single-molecule experiments in biological physics: methods and applications
I review single-molecule experiments (SME) in biological physics. Recent
technological developments have provided the tools to design and build
scientific instruments of high enough sensitivity and precision to manipulate
and visualize individual molecules and measure microscopic forces. Using SME it
is possible to: manipulate molecules one at a time and measure distributions
describing molecular properties; characterize the kinetics of biomolecular
reactions and; detect molecular intermediates. SME provide the additional
information about thermodynamics and kinetics of biomolecular processes. This
complements information obtained in traditional bulk assays. In SME it is also
possible to measure small energies and detect large Brownian deviations in
biomolecular reactions, thereby offering new methods and systems to scrutinize
the basic foundations of statistical mechanics. This review is written at a
very introductory level emphasizing the importance of SME to scientists
interested in knowing the common playground of ideas and the interdisciplinary
topics accessible by these techniques. The review discusses SME from an
experimental perspective, first exposing the most common experimental
methodologies and later presenting various molecular systems where such
techniques have been applied. I briefly discuss experimental techniques such as
atomic-force microscopy (AFM), laser optical tweezers (LOT), magnetic tweezers
(MT), biomembrane force probe (BFP) and single-molecule fluorescence (SMF). I
then present several applications of SME to the study of nucleic acids (DNA,
RNA and DNA condensation), proteins (protein-protein interactions, protein
folding and molecular motors). Finally, I discuss applications of SME to the
study of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of small systems and the
experimental verification of fluctuation theorems. I conclude with a discussion
of open questions and future perspectives.Comment: Latex, 60 pages, 12 figures, Topical Review for J. Phys. C (Cond.
Matt
From Molecular Signal Activation to Locomotion: An Integrated, Multiscale Analysis of Cell Motility on Defined Matrices
The adhesion, mechanics, and motility of eukaryotic cells are highly sensitive to the ligand density and stiffness of the extracellular matrix (ECM). This relationship bears profound implications for stem cell engineering, tumor invasion and metastasis. Yet, our quantitative understanding of how ECM biophysical properties, mechanotransductive signals, and assembly of contractile and adhesive structures collude to control these cell behaviors remains extremely limited. Here we present a novel multiscale model of cell migration on ECMs of defined biophysical properties that integrates local activation of biochemical signals with adhesion and force generation at the cell-ECM interface. We capture the mechanosensitivity of individual cellular components by dynamically coupling ECM properties to the activation of Rho and Rac GTPases in specific portions of the cell with actomyosin contractility, cell-ECM adhesion bond formation and rupture, and process extension and retraction. We show that our framework is capable of recreating key experimentally-observed features of the relationship between cell migration and ECM biophysical properties. In particular, our model predicts for the first time recently reported transitions from filopodial to “stick-slip” to gliding motility on ECMs of increasing stiffness, previously observed dependences of migration speed on ECM stiffness and ligand density, and high-resolution measurements of mechanosensitive protrusion dynamics during cell motility we newly obtained for this study. It also relates the biphasic dependence of cell migration speed on ECM stiffness to the tendency of the cell to polarize. By enabling the investigation of experimentally-inaccessible microscale relationships between mechanotransductive signaling, adhesion, and motility, our model offers new insight into how these factors interact with one another to produce complex migration patterns across a variety of ECM conditions
Mechanical Characterization of One-Headed Myosin-V Using Optical Tweezers
Class V myosin (myosin-V) is a cargo transporter that moves along an actin filament with large (∼36-nm) successive steps. It consists of two heads that each includes a motor domain and a long (23 nm) neck domain. One of the more popular models describing these steps, the hand-over-hand model, assumes the two-headed structure is imperative. However, we previously succeeded in observing successive large steps by one-headed myosin-V upon optimizing the angle of the acto-myosin interaction. In addition, it was reported that wild type myosin-VI and myosin-IX, both one-headed myosins, can also generate successive large steps. Here, we describe the mechanical properties (stepsize and stepping kinetics) of successive large steps by one-headed and two-headed myosin-Vs. This study shows that the stepsize and stepping kinetics of one-headed myosin-V are very similar to those of the two-headed one. However, there was a difference with regards to stability against load and the number of multisteps. One-headed myosin-V also showed unidirectional movement that like two-headed myosin-V required 3.5 kBT from ATP hydrolysis. This value is also similar to that of smooth muscle myosin-II, a non-processive motor, suggesting the myosin family uses a common mechanism for stepping regardless of the steps being processive or non-processive. In this present paper, we conclude that one-headed myosin-V can produce successive large steps without following the hand-over-hand mechanism
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