2,461 research outputs found
Fisher information matrix for single molecules with stochastic trajectories
Tracking of objects in cellular environments has become a vital tool in
molecular cell biology. A particularly important example is single molecule
tracking which enables the study of the motion of a molecule in cellular
environments and provides quantitative information on the behavior of
individual molecules in cellular environments, which were not available before
through bulk studies. Here, we consider a dynamical system where the motion of
an object is modeled by stochastic differential equations (SDEs), and
measurements are the detected photons emitted by the moving fluorescently
labeled object, which occur at discrete time points, corresponding to the
arrival times of a Poisson process, in contrast to uniform time points which
have been commonly used in similar dynamical systems. The measurements are
distributed according to optical diffraction theory, and therefore, they would
be modeled by different distributions, e.g., a Born and Wolf profile for an
out-of-focus molecule. For some special circumstances, Gaussian image models
have been proposed. In this paper, we introduce a stochastic framework in which
we calculate the maximum likelihood estimates of the biophysical parameters of
the molecular interactions, e.g., diffusion and drift coefficients. More
importantly, we develop a general framework to calculate the Cram\'er-Rao lower
bound (CRLB), given by the inverse of the Fisher information matrix, for the
estimation of unknown parameters and use it as a benchmark in the evaluation of
the standard deviation of the estimates. There exists no established method,
even for Gaussian measurements, to systematically calculate the CRLB for the
general motion model that we consider in this paper. We apply the developed
methodology to simulated data of a molecule with linear trajectories and show
that the standard deviation of the estimates matches well with the square root
of the CRLB
Cramer-Rao Lower Bound for Point Based Image Registration with Heteroscedastic Error Model for Application in Single Molecule Microscopy
The Cramer-Rao lower bound for the estimation of the affine transformation
parameters in a multivariate heteroscedastic errors-in-variables model is
derived. The model is suitable for feature-based image registration in which
both sets of control points are localized with errors whose covariance matrices
vary from point to point. With focus given to the registration of fluorescence
microscopy images, the Cramer-Rao lower bound for the estimation of a feature's
position (e.g. of a single molecule) in a registered image is also derived. In
the particular case where all covariance matrices for the localization errors
are scalar multiples of a common positive definite matrix (e.g. the identity
matrix), as can be assumed in fluorescence microscopy, then simplified
expressions for the Cramer-Rao lower bound are given. Under certain simplifying
assumptions these expressions are shown to match asymptotic distributions for a
previously presented set of estimators. Theoretical results are verified with
simulations and experimental data
Extensional rheology and elastic instabilities of a wormlike micellar solution in a microfluidic cross-slot device
Wormlike micellar surfactant solutions are encountered in a wide variety of important applications, including enhanced oil recovery and ink-jet printing, in which the fluids are subjected to high extensional strain rates. In this contribution we present an experimental investigation of the flow of a model wormlike micellar solution (cetyl pyridinium chloride and sodium salicylate in deionised water) in a well-defined stagnation point extensional flow field generated within a microfluidic cross-slot device. We use micro-particle image velocimetry (m-PIV) and full-field birefringence microscopy coupled with macroscopic measurements of the bulk pressure drop to make a quantitative characterization of the fluidâs rheological response over a wide range of deformation rates. The flow field in the micromachined cross-slot is first characterized for viscous flow of a Newtonian fluid, and m-PIV measurements show the flow field remains symmetric and stable up to moderately high Reynolds number, Re z 20, and nominal strain rate, _3nom z 635 s1. By contrast, in the viscoelastic micellar solution the flow field remains symmetric only for low values of the strain rate such that _3nom # lM1, where lM ÂŒ 2.5 s is the Maxwell relaxation time of the fluid. In this stable flow regime the fluid displays a localized and elongated birefringent strand extending along the outflow streamline from the stagnation point, and estimates of the apparent extensional viscosity can be obtained using the stressoptical rule and from the total pressure drop measured across the cross-slot channel. For moderate deformation rates (_3nom $ lM1) the flow remains steady, but becomes increasingly asymmetric with increasing flow rate, eventually achieving a steady state of complete anti-symmetry characterized by a dividing streamline and birefringent strand connecting diagonally opposite corners of the cross-slot. Eventually, as the nominal imposed deformation rate is increased further, the asymmetric divided flow becomes time dependent. These purely elastic instabilities are reminiscent of those observed in crossslot flows of polymer solutions, but seem to be strongly influenced by the effects of shear localization of the micellar fluid within the microchannels and around the re-entrant corners of the cross-slot
Criterion for purely elastic Taylor-Couette instability in the flows of shear-banding fluids
In the past twenty years, shear-banding flows have been probed by various
techniques, such as rheometry, velocimetry and flow birefringence. In micellar
solutions, many of the data collected exhibit unexplained spatio-temporal
fluctuations. Recently, it has been suggested that those fluctuations originate
from a purely elastic instability of the flow. In cylindrical Couette geometry,
the instability is reminiscent of the Taylor-like instability observed in
viscoelastic polymer solutions. In this letter, we describe how the criterion
for purely elastic Taylor-Couette instability should be adapted to
shear-banding flows. We derive three categories of shear-banding flows with
curved streamlines, depending on their stability.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Potential "ways of thinking" about the shear-banding phenomenon
Shear-banding is a curious but ubiquitous phenomenon occurring in soft
matter. The phenomenological similarities between the shear-banding transition
and phase transitions has pushed some researchers to adopt a 'thermodynamical'
approach, in opposition to the more classical 'mechanical' approach to fluid
flows. In this heuristic review, we describe why the apparent dichotomy between
those approaches has slowly faded away over the years. To support our
discussion, we give an overview of different interpretations of a single
equation, the diffusive Johnson-Segalman (dJS) equation, in the context of
shear-banding. We restrict ourselves to dJS, but we show that the equation can
be written in various equivalent forms usually associated with opposite
approaches. We first review briefly the origin of the dJS model and its initial
rheological interpretation in the context of shear-banding. Then we describe
the analogy between dJS and reaction-diffusion equations. In the case of
anisotropic diffusion, we show how the dJS governing equations for steady shear
flow are analogous to the equations of the dynamics of a particle in a quartic
potential. Going beyond the existing literature, we then draw on the Lagrangian
formalism to describe how the boundary conditions can have a key impact on the
banding state. Finally, we reinterpret the dJS equation again and we show that
a rigorous effective free energy can be constructed, in the spirit of early
thermodynamic interpretations or in terms of more recent approaches exploiting
the language of irreversible thermodynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, tutorial revie
Minkowski Functionals of Abell/ACO Clusters
We determine the Minkowski functionals for a sample of Abell/ACO clusters,
401 with measured and 16 with estimated redshifts. The four Minkowski
functionals (including the void probability function and the mean genus)
deliver a global description of the spatial distribution of clusters on scales
from to 60\hMpc with a clear geometric interpretation. Comparisons with
mock catalogues of N--body simulations using different variants of the CDM
model demonstrate the discriminative power of the description. The standard CDM
model and the model with tilted perturbation spectrum cannot generate the
Minkowski functionals of the cluster data, while a model with a cosmological
constant and a model with breaking of the scale invariance of perturbations
(BSI) yield compatible results.Comment: 10 pages, 13 Postscript figures, uses epsf.sty and mn.sty (included),
submitted to MNRA
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