Optimal target search on a fast folding polymer chain with volume exchange

We study the search process of a target on a rapidly folding polymer (`DNA') by an ensemble of particles (`proteins'), whose search combines 1D diffusion along the chain, Levy type diffusion mediated by chain looping, and volume exchange. A rich behavior of the search process is obtained with respect to the physical parameters, in particular, for the optimal search.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, REVTe

Study of Spectral/Radiometric Characteristics of the Thematic Mapper for Land Use Applications

An investigation conducted in support of the LANDSAT 4/5 Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) Program is discussed. Results of engineering analyses of radiometric, spatial, spectral, and geometric properties of the Thematic Mapper systems are summarized; major emphasis is placed on the radiometric analysis. Details of the analyses are presented in appendices, which contain three of the eight technical papers produced during this investigation; these three, together, describe the major activities and results of the investigation

Helix untwisting and bubble formation in circular DNA

The base pair fluctuations and helix untwisting are examined for a circular molecule. A realistic mesoscopic model including twisting degrees of freedom and bending of the molecular axis is proposed. The computational method, based on path integral techniques, simulates a distribution of topoisomers with various twist numbers and finds the energetically most favorable molecular conformation as a function of temperature. The method can predict helical repeat, openings loci and bubble sizes for specific sequences in a broad temperature range. Some results are presented for a short DNA circle recently identified in mammalian cells.Comment: The Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 138 (2013), in pres

Development, implementation and evaluation of satellite-aided agricultural monitoring systems

Research activities in support of AgRISTARS Inventory Technology Development Project in the use of aerospace remote sensing for agricultural inventory described include: (1) corn and soybean crop spectral temporal signature characterization; (2) efficient area estimation techniques development; and (3) advanced satellite and sensor system definition. Studies include a statistical evaluation of the impact of cultural and environmental factors on crop spectral profiles, the development and evaluation of an automatic crop area estimation procedure, and the joint use of SEASAT-SAR and LANDSAT MSS for crop inventory

Comment on "Why is the DNA denaturation transition first order?"

In this comment we argue that while the conclusions in the original paper (Y. Kafri, D. Mukamel and L. Peliti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4988 (2000)) are correct for asymptotically long DNA chains, they do not apply to the chains used in typical experiments. In the added last paragraph, we point out that for real DNA the average distance between denatured loops is not of the order of the persistence length of a single-stranded chain but much larger. This corroborates our reasoning that the double helix between loops is quite rigid, and thereby our conclusion.Comment: 1 page, REVTeX. Last paragraph adde

Graph-Embedding Empowered Entity Retrieval

In this research, we improve upon the current state of the art in entity retrieval by re-ranking the result list using graph embeddings. The paper shows that graph embeddings are useful for entity-oriented search tasks. We demonstrate empirically that encoding information from the knowledge graph into (graph) embeddings contributes to a higher increase in effectiveness of entity retrieval results than using plain word embeddings. We analyze the impact of the accuracy of the entity linker on the overall retrieval effectiveness. Our analysis further deploys the cluster hypothesis to explain the observed advantages of graph embeddings over the more widely used word embeddings, for user tasks involving ranking entities

DNA bubble dynamics as a quantum Coulomb problem

We study the dynamics of denaturation bubbles in double-stranded DNA on the basis of the Poland-Scheraga model. We demonstrate that the associated Fokker-Planck equation is equivalent to a Coulomb problem. Below the melting temperature the bubble lifetime is associated with the continuum of scattering states of the repulsive Coulomb potential, at the melting temperature the Coulomb potential vanishes and the underlying first exit dynamics exhibits a long time power law tail, above the melting temperature, corresponding to an attractive Coulomb potential, the long time dynamics is controlled by the lowest bound state. Correlations and finite size effects are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, revte