493 research outputs found
Effective thermodynamics of strongly coupled qubits
Interactions between a quantum system and its environment at low temperatures
can lead to violations of thermal laws for the system. The source of these
violations is the entanglement between system and environment, which prevents
the system from entering into a thermal state. On the other hand, for two-state
systems, we show that one can define an effective temperature, placing the
system into a `pseudo-thermal' state where effective thermal laws are upheld.
We then numerically explore these assertions for an n-state system inspired by
the spin-boson environment.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
The α-Hemolysin nanopore transduction detector – single-molecule binding studies and immunological screening of antibodies and aptamers
Stripe-hexagon competition in forced pattern forming systems with broken up-down symmetry
We investigate the response of two-dimensional pattern forming systems with a
broken up-down symmetry, such as chemical reactions, to spatially resonant
forcing and propose related experiments. The nonlinear behavior immediately
above threshold is analyzed in terms of amplitude equations suggested for a
and ratio between the wavelength of the spatial periodic forcing
and the wavelength of the pattern of the respective system. Both sets of
coupled amplitude equations are derived by a perturbative method from the
Lengyel-Epstein model describing a chemical reaction showing Turing patterns,
which gives us the opportunity to relate the generic response scenarios to a
specific pattern forming system. The nonlinear competition between stripe
patterns and distorted hexagons is explored and their range of existence,
stability and coexistence is determined. Whereas without modulations hexagonal
patterns are always preferred near onset of pattern formation, single mode
solutions (stripes) are favored close to threshold for modulation amplitudes
beyond some critical value. Hence distorted hexagons only occur in a finite
range of the control parameter and their interval of existence shrinks to zero
with increasing values of the modulation amplitude. Furthermore depending on
the modulation amplitude the transition between stripes and distorted hexagons
is either sub- or supercritical.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physical Review
A novel, fast, HMM-with-Duration implementation – for application with a new, pattern recognition informed, nanopore detector
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) provide an excellent means for structure identification and feature extraction on stochastic sequential data. An HMM-with-Duration (HMMwD) is an HMM that can also exactly model the hidden-label length (recurrence) distributions – while the regular HMM will impose a best-fit geometric distribution in its modeling/representation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A Novel, Fast, HMM-with-Duration (HMMwD) Implementation is presented, and experimental results are shown that demonstrate its performance on two-state synthetic data designed to model Nanopore Detector Data. The HMMwD experimental results are compared to (i) the ideal model and to (ii) the conventional HMM. Its accuracy is clearly an improvement over the standard HMM, and matches that of the ideal solution in many cases where the standard HMM does not. Computationally, the new HMMwD has all the speed advantages of the conventional (simpler) HMM implementation. In preliminary work shown here, HMM feature extraction is then used to establish the first pattern recognition-informed (PRI) sampling control of a Nanopore Detector Device (on a "live" data-stream).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The improved accuracy of the new HMMwD implementation, at the same order of computational cost as the standard HMM, is an important augmentation for applications in gene structure identification and channel current analysis, especially PRI sampling control, for example, where speed is essential. The PRI experiment was designed to inherit the high accuracy of the well characterized and distinctive blockades of the DNA hairpin molecules used as controls (or blockade "test-probes"). For this test set, the accuracy inherited is 99.9%.</p
Nanopore current transduction analysis of protein binding to non-terminal and terminal DNA regions: analysis of transcription factor binding, retroviral DNA terminus dynamics, and retroviral integrase-DNA binding
Nanopore-based kinetics analysis of individual antibody-channel and antibody-antigen interactions
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The UNO/RIC Nanopore Detector provides a new way to study the binding and conformational changes of individual antibodies. Many critical questions regarding antibody function are still unresolved, questions that can be approached in a new way with the nanopore detector.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present evidence that different forms of channel blockade can be associated with the same antibody, we associate these different blockades with different orientations of "capture" of an antibody in the detector's nanometer-scale channel. We directly detect the presence of antibodies via reductions in channel current. Changes to blockade patterns upon addition of antigen suggest indirect detection of antibody/antigen binding. Similarly, DNA-hairpin anchored antibodies have been studied, where the DNA linkage is to the carboxy-terminus at the base of the antibody's Fc region, with significantly fewer types of (lengthy) capture blockades than was observed for free (un-bound) IgG antibody. The introduction of chaotropic agents and its effects on protein-protein interactions have also been observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Nanopore-based approaches may eventually provide a direct analysis of the complex conformational "negotiations" that occur upon binding between proteins.</p
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Dynamic response of berea sandstone shock-loaded under dry, wet and water-pressurized conditions
A single-stage light-gas gun was used to perform shock-recovery experiments on Berea sandstone under dry, wet and hydrostatically water-pressurized conditions. The samples were impacted by flyer-plates to achieve stress levels in the range 1.3 to 9.8 GPa. The microstructure of the shocked samples was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser particle analysis and X-ray computed microtomography (XCMT). The dry samples show strongly fragmented and irregularly fractured quartz grains with a considerably reduced porosity, whereas the wet and water-pressurized specimens show less grain damage and less porosity reduction. During shock compression the water in the pores distributes the stresses and therefore the contact force between the grains is reduced. The interaction between the grains during the shock process was modeled by explicitly treating the grain-pore structure using Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and the Discrete Element Method (DEM)
Convection in colloidal suspensions with particle-concentration-dependent viscosity
The onset of thermal convection in a horizontal layer of a colloidal
suspension is investigated in terms of a continuum model for binary-fluid
mixtures where the viscosity depends on the local concentration of colloidal
particles. With an increasing difference between the viscosity at the warmer
and the colder boundary the threshold of convection is reduced in the range of
positive values of the separation ratio psi with the onset of stationary
convection as well as in the range of negative values of psi with an
oscillatory Hopf bifurcation. Additionally the convection rolls are shifted
downwards with respect to the center of the horizontal layer for stationary
convection (psi>0) and upwards for the Hopf bifurcation (psi<0).Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal
Proceedings of the 2008 MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS) Conference
Localized and Delocalized Charge Transport in Single-Wall Carbon-Nanotube Mats
We measured the complex dielectric constant in mats of single-wall
carbon-nanotubes between 2.7 K and 300 K up to 0.5 THz. The data are well
understood in a Drude approach with a negligible temperature dependence of the
plasma frequency (omega_p) and scattering time (tau) with an additional
contribution of localized charges. The dielectric properties resemble those of
the best ''metallic'' polypyrroles and polyanilines. The absence of metallic
islands makes the mats a relevant piece in the puzzle of the interpretation of
tau and omega_p in these polymers.Comment: 4 pages including 4 figure
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