2,965 research outputs found
Facilitation of polymer looping and giant polymer diffusivity in crowded solutions of active particles
We study the dynamics of polymer chains in a bath of self-propelled particles
(SPP) by extensive Langevin dynamics simulations in a two dimensional system.
Specifically, we analyse the polymer looping properties versus the SPP activity
and investigate how the presence of the active particles alters the chain
conformational statistics. We find that SPPs tend to extend flexible polymer
chains while they rather compactify stiffer semiflexible polymers, in agreement
with previous results. Here we show that larger activities of SPPs yield a
higher effective temperature of the bath and thus facilitate looping kinetics
of a passive polymer chain. We explicitly compute the looping probability and
looping time in a wide range of the model parameters. We also analyse the
motion of a monomeric tracer particle and the polymer's centre of mass in the
presence of the active particles in terms of the time averaged mean squared
displacement, revealing a giant diffusivity enhancement for the polymer chain
via SPP pooling. Our results are applicable to rationalising the dimensions and
looping kinetics of biopolymers at constantly fluctuating and often actively
driven conditions inside biological cells or suspensions of active colloidal
particles or bacteria cells.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, IOPLaTe
Thermodynamics and Fractional Fokker-Planck Equations
The relaxation to equilibrium in many systems which show strange kinetics is
described by fractional Fokker-Planck equations (FFPEs). These can be
considered as phenomenological equations of linear nonequilibrium theory. We
show that the FFPEs describe the system whose noise in equilibrium funfills the
Nyquist theorem. Moreover, we show that for subdiffusive dynamics the solutions
of the corresponding FFPEs are probability densities for all cases where the
solutions of normal Fokker-Planck equation (with the same Fokker-Planck
operator and with the same initial and boundary conditions) exist. The
solutions of the FFPEs for superdiffusive dynamics are not always probability
densities. This fact means only that the corresponding kinetic coefficients are
incompatible with each other and with the initial conditions
Subordination model of anomalous diffusion leading to the two-power-law relaxation responses
We derive a general pattern of the nonexponential, two-power-law relaxation
from the compound subordination theory of random processes applied to anomalous
diffusion. The subordination approach is based on a coupling between the very
large jumps in physical and operational times. It allows one to govern a
scaling for small and large times independently. Here we obtain explicitly the
relaxation function, the kinetic equation and the susceptibility expression
applicable to the range of experimentally observed power-law exponents which
cannot be interpreted by means of the commonly known Havriliak-Negami fitting
function. We present a novel two-power relaxation law for this range in a
convenient frequency-domain form and show its relationship to the
Havriliak-Negami one.Comment: 5 pages; 3 figures; corrected versio
Bubble coalescence in breathing DNA: Two vicious walkers in opposite potentials
We investigate the coalescence of two DNA-bubbles initially located at weak
segments and separated by a more stable barrier region in a designed construct
of double-stranded DNA. The characteristic time for bubble coalescence and the
corresponding distribution are derived, as well as the distribution of
coalescence positions along the barrier. Below the melting temperature, we find
a Kramers-type barrier crossing behaviour, while at high temperatures, the
bubble corners perform drift-diffusion towards coalescence. The results are
obtained by mapping the bubble dynamics on the problem of two vicious walkers
in opposite potentials.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Fractional Klein-Kramers equation for superdiffusive transport: normal versus anomalous time evolution in a differential L{\'e}vy walk model
We introduce a fractional Klein-Kramers equation which describes
sub-ballistic superdiffusion in phase space in the presence of a
space-dependent external force field. This equation defines the differential
L{\'e}vy walk model whose solution is shown to be non-negative. In the velocity
coordinate, the probability density relaxes in Mittag-Leffler fashion towards
the Maxwell distribution whereas in the space coordinate, no stationary
solution exists and the temporal evolution of moments exhibits a competition
between Brownian and anomalous contributions.Comment: 4 pages, REVTe
Bubble dynamics in DNA
The formation of local denaturation zones (bubbles) in double-stranded DNA is
an important example for conformational changes of biological macromolecules.
We study the dynamics of bubble formation in terms of a Fokker-Planck equation
for the probability density to find a bubble of size n base pairs at time t, on
the basis of the free energy in the Poland-Scheraga model. Characteristic
bubble closing and opening times can be determined from the corresponding first
passage time problem, and are sensitive to the specific parameters entering the
model. A multistate unzipping model with constant rates recently applied to DNA
breathing dynamics [G. Altan-Bonnet et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 138101 (2003)]
emerges as a limiting case.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Differences in intestinal size, structure, and function contributing to feed efficiency in broiler chickens reared at geographically distant locations
The contribution of the intestinal tract to differences in residual feed intake (RFI) has been inconclusively studied in chickens so far. It is also not clear if RFI-related differences in intestinal function are similar in chickens raised in different environments. The objective was to investigate differences in nutrient retention, visceral organ size, intestinal morphology, jejunal permeability and expression of genes related to barrier function, and innate immune response in chickens of diverging RFI raised at 2 locations (L1: Austria; L2: UK). The experimental protocol was similar, and the same dietary formulation was fed at the 2 locations. Individual BW and feed intake (FI) of chickens (Cobb 500FF) were recorded from d 7 of life. At 5 wk of life, chickens (L1, n = 157; L2 = 192) were ranked according to their RFI, and low, medium, and high RFI chickens were selected (n = 9/RFI group, sex, and location). RFI values were similar between locations within the same RFI group and increased by 446 and 464 g from low to high RFI in females and males, respectively. Location, but not RFI rank, affected growth, nutrient retention, size of the intestine, and jejunal disaccharidase activity. Chickens from L2 had lower total body weight gain and mucosal enzyme activity but higher nutrient retention and longer intestines than chickens at L1. Parameters determined only at L1 showed increased crypt depth in the duodenum and jejunum and enhanced paracellular permeability in low vs. high RFI females. Jejunal expression of IL1B was lower in low vs. high RFI females at L2, whereas that of TLR4 at L1 and MCT1 at both locations was higher in low vs. high RFI males. Correlation analysis between intestinal parameters and feed efficiency metrics indicated that feed conversion ratio was more correlated to intestinal size and function than was RFI. In conclusion, the rearing environment greatly affected intestinal size and function, thereby contributing to the variation in chicken RFI observed across locations
From the solutions of diffusion equation to the solutions of subdiffusive one
Starting with the Green's functions found for normal diffusion, we construct
exact time-dependent Green's functions for subdiffusive equation (with
fractional time derivatives), with the boundary conditions involving a linear
combination of fluxes and concentrations. The method is particularly useful to
calculate the concentration profiles in a multi-part system where different
kind of transport occurs in each part of it. As an example, we find the
solutions of subdiffusive equation for the system composed from two parts with
normal diffusion and subdiffusion, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Subdiffusion-limited reactions
We consider the coagulation dynamics A+A -> A and A+A A and the
annihilation dynamics A+A -> 0 for particles moving subdiffusively in one
dimension. This scenario combines the "anomalous kinetics" and "anomalous
diffusion" problems, each of which leads to interesting dynamics separately and
to even more interesting dynamics in combination. Our analysis is based on the
fractional diffusion equation
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