1,833 research outputs found
Positive Feedback Regulation Results in Spatial Clustering and Fast Spreading of Active Signaling Molecules on a Cell Membrane
Positive feedback regulation is ubiquitous in cell signaling networks, often
leading to binary outcomes in response to graded stimuli. However, the role of
such feedbacks in clustering, and in spatial spreading of activated molecules,
has come to be appreciated only recently. We focus on the latter, using a
simple model developed in the context of Ras activation with competing negative
and positive feedback mechanisms. We find that positive feedback, in the
presence of slow diffusion, results in clustering of activated molecules on the
plasma membrane, and rapid spatial spreading as the front of the cluster
propagates with a constant velocity (dependent on the feedback strength). The
advancing fronts of the clusters of the activated species are rough, with
scaling consistent with the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation in one
dimension. Our minimal model is general enough to describe signal transduction
in a wide variety of biological networks where activity in the
membrane-proximal region is subject to feedback regulation.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures. Journal of Chemical Physics (in press
Probability distributions for polymer translocation
We study the passage (translocation) of a self-avoiding polymer through a
membrane pore in two dimensions. In particular, we numerically measure the
probability distribution Q(T) of the translocation time T, and the distribution
P(s,t) of the translocation coordinate s at various times t. When scaled with
the mean translocation time , Q(T) becomes independent of polymer length,
and decays exponentially for large T. The probability P(s,t) is well described
by a Gaussian at short times, with a variance that grows sub-diffusively as
t^{\alpha} with \alpha~0.8. For times exceeding , P(s,t) of the polymers
that have not yet finished their translocation has a non-trivial stable shape.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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QProber: A System for Automatic Classification of Hidden-Web Resources
The contents of many valuable web-accessible databases are only available through search interfaces and are hence invisible to traditional web "crawlers." Recently, commercial web sites have started to manually organize web-accessible databases into Yahoo!-like hierarchical classification schemes. Here, we introduce QProber, a modular system that automates this classification process by using a small number of query probes, generated by document classifiers. QProber can use a variety of types of classifiers to generate the probes. To classify a database, QProber does not retrieve or inspect any documents or pages from the database, but rather just exploits the number of matches that each query probe generates at the database in question. We have conducted an extensive experimental evaluation of QProber over collections of real documents, experimenting with different types of document classifiers and retrieval models. We have also tested our system with over one hundred web-accessible databases. Our experiments show that our system has low overhead and achieves high classification accuracy across a variety of databases
Material dependence of Casimir forces: gradient expansion beyond proximity
A widely used method for estimating Casimir interactions [H. B. G. Casimir,
Proc. K. Ned. Akad. Wet. 51, 793 (1948)] between gently curved material
surfaces at short distances is the proximity force approximation (PFA). While
this approximation is asymptotically exact at vanishing separations,
quantifying corrections to PFA has been notoriously difficult. Here we use a
derivative expansion to compute the leading curvature correction to PFA for
metals (gold) and insulators (SiO) at room temperature. We derive an
explicit expression for the amplitude of the PFA correction to
the force gradient for axially symmetric surfaces. In the non-retarded limit,
the corrections to the Casimir free energy are found to scale logarithmically
with distance. For gold, has an unusually large temperature
dependence.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Apex Exponents for Polymer--Probe Interactions
We consider self-avoiding polymers attached to the tip of an impenetrable
probe. The scaling exponents and , characterizing the
number of configurations for the attachment of the polymer by one end, or at
its midpoint, vary continuously with the tip's angle. These apex exponents are
calculated analytically by -expansion, and numerically by simulations
in three dimensions. We find that when the polymer can move through the
attachment point, it typically slides to one end; the apex exponents quantify
the entropic barrier to threading the eye of the probe
First Passage Distributions in a Collective Model of Anomalous Diffusion with Tunable Exponent
We consider a model system in which anomalous diffusion is generated by
superposition of underlying linear modes with a broad range of relaxation
times. In the language of Gaussian polymers, our model corresponds to Rouse
(Fourier) modes whose friction coefficients scale as wavenumber to the power
. A single (tagged) monomer then executes subdiffusion over a broad range
of time scales, and its mean square displacement increases as with
. To demonstrate non-trivial aspects of the model, we numerically
study the absorption of the tagged particle in one dimension near an absorbing
boundary or in the interval between two such boundaries. We obtain absorption
probability densities as a function of time, as well as the position-dependent
distribution for unabsorbed particles, at several values of . Each of
these properties has features characterized by exponents that depend on
. Characteristic distributions found for different values of
have similar qualitative features, but are not simply related quantitatively.
Comparison of the motion of translocation coordinate of a polymer moving
through a pore in a membrane with the diffusing tagged monomer with identical
also reveals quantitative differences.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 8 eps figure
The Unusual Universality of Branching Interfaces in Random Media
We study the criticality of a Potts interface by introducing a {\it froth}
model which, unlike its SOS Ising counterpart, incorporates bubbles of
different phases. The interface is fractal at the phase transition of a pure
system. However, a position space approximation suggests that the probability
of loop formation vanishes marginally at a transition dominated by {\it strong
random bond disorder}. This implies a linear critical interface, and provides a
mechanism for the conjectured equivalence of critical random Potts and Ising
models.Comment: REVTEX, 13 pages, 3 Postscript figures appended using uufile
Casimir Force at a Knife's Edge
The Casimir force has been computed exactly for only a few simple geometries,
such as infinite plates, cylinders, and spheres. We show that a parabolic
cylinder, for which analytic solutions to the Helmholtz equation are available,
is another case where such a calculation is possible. We compute the
interaction energy of a parabolic cylinder and an infinite plate (both perfect
mirrors), as a function of their separation and inclination, and ,
and the cylinder's parabolic radius . As , the proximity force
approximation becomes exact. The opposite limit of corresponds to a
semi-infinite plate, where the effects of edge and inclination can be probed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, uses RevTeX; v2: expanded conclusions; v3: fixed
missing factor in Eq. (3) and incorrect diagram label (no changes to
results); v4: fix similar factor in Eq. (16) (again no changes to results
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