77 research outputs found
Explicit Green's Function of a Boundary Value Problem for a Sphere and Trapped Flux Analysis in Gravity Probe B Experiment
Magnetic flux trapped on the surface of superconducting rotors of the Gravity
Probe B (GP-B) experiment produces some signal in the SQUID readout. For the
needs of GP-B error analysis and simulation of data reduction, this signal is
calculated and analyzed in the paper. We first solve a magnetostatic problem
for a point source (fluxon) on the surface of a sphere, finding the closed form
elementary expression for the corresponding Green's function. Second, we
calculate the flux through the pick-up loop as a function of the fluxon
position. Next, the time dependence of a fluxon position, caused by rotor
motion according to a symmetric top model, and thus the time signature of the
flux are determined, and the spectrum of the trapped flux signal is analyzed.
Finally, a multi-purpose program of trapped flux signal generation based on the
above results is described, various examples of the signal obtained by means of
this program are given, and their features are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, including 7 figures. Submitted to: "Journal of Applied
Physics
Minimal subtraction and the Callan-Symanzik equation
The usual proof of renormalizability using the Callan-Symanzik equation makes
explicit use of normalization conditions. It is shown that demanding that the
renormalization group functions take the form required for minimal subtraction
allows one to prove renormalizability using the Callan-Symanzik equation,
without imposing normalization conditions. Scalar field theory and quantum
electrodynamics are treated.Comment: 6 pages, plain Te
On the detectability of quantum spacetime foam with gravitational-wave interferometers
We discuss a recent provocative suggestion by Amelino-Camelia and others that
classical spacetime may break down into ``quantum foam'' on distance scales
many orders of magnitude larger than the Planck length, leading to effects
which could be detected using large gravitational wave interferometers. This
suggestion is based on a quantum uncertainty limit obtained by Wigner using a
quantum clock in a gedanken timing experiment. Wigner's limit, however, is
based on two unrealistic and unneccessary assumptions: that the clock is free
to move, and that it does not interact with the environment. Removing either of
these assumptions makes the uncertainty limit invalid, and removes the basis
for Amelino-Camelia's suggestion.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Entropy and information in neural spike trains: Progress on the sampling problem
The major problem in information theoretic analysis of neural responses and
other biological data is the reliable estimation of entropy--like quantities
from small samples. We apply a recently introduced Bayesian entropy estimator
to synthetic data inspired by experiments, and to real experimental spike
trains. The estimator performs admirably even very deep in the undersampled
regime, where other techniques fail. This opens new possibilities for the
information theoretic analysis of experiments, and may be of general interest
as an example of learning from limited data.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; referee suggested changes, accepted versio
Reconstruction of metabolic networks from high-throughput metabolite profiling data: in silico analysis of red blood cell metabolism
We investigate the ability of algorithms developed for reverse engineering of
transcriptional regulatory networks to reconstruct metabolic networks from
high-throughput metabolite profiling data. For this, we generate synthetic
metabolic profiles for benchmarking purposes based on a well-established model
for red blood cell metabolism. A variety of data sets is generated, accounting
for different properties of real metabolic networks, such as experimental
noise, metabolite correlations, and temporal dynamics. These data sets are made
available online. We apply ARACNE, a mainstream transcriptional networks
reverse engineering algorithm, to these data sets and observe performance
comparable to that obtained in the transcriptional domain, for which the
algorithm was originally designed.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Presented at the DIMACS Workshop on Dialogue on
Reverse Engineering Assessment and Methods (DREAM), Sep 200
A machine learning pipeline for discriminant pathways identification
Motivation: Identifying the molecular pathways more prone to disruption
during a pathological process is a key task in network medicine and, more in
general, in systems biology.
Results: In this work we propose a pipeline that couples a machine learning
solution for molecular profiling with a recent network comparison method. The
pipeline can identify changes occurring between specific sub-modules of
networks built in a case-control biomarker study, discriminating key groups of
genes whose interactions are modified by an underlying condition. The proposal
is independent from the classification algorithm used. Three applications on
genomewide data are presented regarding children susceptibility to air
pollution and two neurodegenerative diseases: Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Availability: Details about the software used for the experiments discussed
in this paper are provided in the Appendix
Reverse Engineering Gene Networks with ANN: Variability in Network Inference Algorithms
Motivation :Reconstructing the topology of a gene regulatory network is one
of the key tasks in systems biology. Despite of the wide variety of proposed
methods, very little work has been dedicated to the assessment of their
stability properties. Here we present a methodical comparison of the
performance of a novel method (RegnANN) for gene network inference based on
multilayer perceptrons with three reference algorithms (ARACNE, CLR, KELLER),
focussing our analysis on the prediction variability induced by both the
network intrinsic structure and the available data.
Results: The extensive evaluation on both synthetic data and a selection of
gene modules of "Escherichia coli" indicates that all the algorithms suffer of
instability and variability issues with regards to the reconstruction of the
topology of the network. This instability makes objectively very hard the task
of establishing which method performs best. Nevertheless, RegnANN shows MCC
scores that compare very favorably with all the other inference methods tested.
Availability: The software for the RegnANN inference algorithm is distributed
under GPL3 and it is available at the corresponding author home page
(http://mpba.fbk.eu/grimaldi/regnann-supmat
Stochastic pump effect and geometric phases in dissipative and stochastic systems
The success of Berry phases in quantum mechanics stimulated the study of
similar phenomena in other areas of physics, including the theory of living
cell locomotion and motion of patterns in nonlinear media. More recently,
geometric phases have been applied to systems operating in a strongly
stochastic environment, such as molecular motors. We discuss such geometric
effects in purely classical dissipative stochastic systems and their role in
the theory of the stochastic pump effect (SPE).Comment: Review. 35 pages. J. Phys. A: Math, Theor. (in press
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