323 research outputs found
A Boolean Gene Regulatory Model of heterosis and speciation
Modelling genetic phenomena affecting biological traits is important for the
development of agriculture as it allows breeders to predict the potential of
breeding for certain traits. One such phenomenon is heterosis or hybrid vigor:
crossing individuals from genetically distinct populations often results in
improvements in quantitative traits, such as growth rate, biomass production
and stress resistance. Heterosis has become a very useful tool in global
agriculture, but its genetic basis remains controversial and its effects hard
to predict. We have taken a computational approach to studying heterosis,
developing a simulation of evolution, independent reassortment of alleles and
hybridization of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) in a Boolean framework.
Fitness is measured as the ability of a network to respond to external inputs
in a pre-defined way. Our model reproduced common experimental observations on
heterosis using only biologically justified parameters. Hybrid vigor was
observed and its extent was seen to increase as parental populations diverged,
up until a point of sudden collapse of hybrid fitness. We also reproduce, for
the first time in a model, the fact that hybrid vigor cannot easily be fixed by
within a breeding line, currently an important limitation of the use of hybrid
crops. The simulation allowed us to study the effects of three standard models
for the genetic basis of heterosis and the level of detail in our model allows
us to suggest possible warning signs of the impending collapse of hybrid vigor
in breeding. In addition, the simulation provides a framework that can be
extended to study other aspects of heterosis and alternative evolutionary
scenarios.Comment: See online version for supplementary materia
Purification and analytical characterization of an anti- CD4 monoclonal antibody for human therapy
A purification process for the monclonal anti-CD4 antibody MAX.16H5 was developed on an analytical scale using (NH&SO,
precipitation, anion-exchange chromatography on MonoQ or Q-Sepharose, hydrophobic interaction chromatography on phenyl-
Sepharose and gel filtration chromatography on Superdex 200. The purification schedule was scaled up and gram amounts of
MAX.16H5 were produced on corresponding BioPilot columns. Studies of the identity, purity and possible contamination by a
broad range of methods showed that the product was highly purified and free from contaminants such as mouse DNA, viruses,
pyrogens and irritants. Overall, the analytical data confirm that the monoclonal antibody MAX.16H5 prepared by this protocol is
suitable for human therapy
Symplectic Dirac-K\"ahler Fields
For the description of space-time fermions, Dirac-K\"ahler fields
(inhomogeneous differential forms) provide an interesting alternative to the
Dirac spinor fields. In this paper we develop a similar concept within the
symplectic geometry of phase-spaces. Rather than on space-time, symplectic
Dirac-K\"ahler fields can be defined on the classical phase-space of any
Hamiltonian system. They are equivalent to an infinite family of metaplectic
spinor fields, i.e. spinors of Sp(2N), in the same way an ordinary
Dirac-K\"ahler field is equivalent to a (finite) mulitplet of Dirac spinors.
The results are interpreted in the framework of the gauge theory formulation of
quantum mechanics which was proposed recently. An intriguing analogy is found
between the lattice fermion problem (species doubling) and the problem of
quantization in general.Comment: 86 pages, late
Nonlinear stochastic evolution equations of second order with damping
Convergence of a full discretization of a second order stochastic evolution
equation with nonlinear damping is shown and thus existence of a solution is
established. The discretization scheme combines an implicit time stepping
scheme with an internal approximation. Uniqueness is proved as well.Comment: This is the version of the article accepted for publication. The
final publication is available at http://link.springer.co
Gauging and symplectic blowing up in nonlinear sigma-models: I. point singularities
In this paper a two dimensional non-linear sigma model with a general
symplectic manifold with isometry as target space is used to study symplectic
blowing up of a point singularity on the zero level set of the moment map
associated with a quasi-free Hamiltonian action. We discuss in general the
relation between symplectic reduction and gauging of the symplectic isometries
of the sigma model action. In the case of singular reduction, gauging has the
same effect as blowing up the singular point by a small amount. Using the
exponential mapping of the underlying metric, we are able to construct
symplectic diffeomorphisms needed to glue the blow-up to the global reduced
space which is regular, thus providing a transition from one symplectic sigma
model to another one free of singularities.Comment: 32 pages, LaTex, THEP 93/24 (corrected and expanded(about 5 pages)
version
Continuous, Semi-discrete, and Fully Discretized Navier-Stokes Equations
The Navier--Stokes equations are commonly used to model and to simulate flow
phenomena. We introduce the basic equations and discuss the standard methods
for the spatial and temporal discretization. We analyse the semi-discrete
equations -- a semi-explicit nonlinear DAE -- in terms of the strangeness index
and quantify the numerical difficulties in the fully discrete schemes, that are
induced by the strangeness of the system. By analyzing the Kronecker index of
the difference-algebraic equations, that represent commonly and successfully
used time stepping schemes for the Navier--Stokes equations, we show that those
time-integration schemes factually remove the strangeness. The theoretical
considerations are backed and illustrated by numerical examples.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure, code available under DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.998909,
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.99890
Gauge Orbit Types for Theories with Classical Compact Gauge Group
We determine the orbit types of the action of the group of local gauge
transformations on the space of connections in a principal bundle with
structure group O(n), SO(n) or over a closed, simply connected manifold
of dimension 4. Complemented with earlier results on U(n) and SU(n) this
completes the classification of the orbit types for all classical compact gauge
groups over such space-time manifolds. On the way we derive the classification
of principal bundles with structure group SO(n) over these manifolds and the
Howe subgroups of SO(n).Comment: 57 page
Zitterbewegung and semiclassical observables for the Dirac equation
In a semiclassical context we investigate the Zitterbewegung of relativistic
particles with spin 1/2 moving in external fields. It is shown that the
analogue of Zitterbewegung for general observables can be removed to arbitrary
order in \hbar by projecting to dynamically almost invariant subspaces of the
quantum mechanical Hilbert space which are associated with particles and
anti-particles. This not only allows to identify observables with a
semiclassical meaning, but also to recover combined classical dynamics for the
translational and spin degrees of freedom. Finally, we discuss properties of
eigenspinors of a Dirac-Hamiltonian when these are projected to the almost
invariant subspaces, including the phenomenon of quantum ergodicity
- …