72 research outputs found
Grain Boundary Scars on Spherical Crystals
We present an experimental system suitable for producing spherical crystals
and for observing the distribution of lattice defects (disclinations and
dislocations) on a significant fraction (50%) of the sphere. The introduction
of fluorescently labeled particles enables us to determine the location and
orientation of grain boundary scars. We find that the total number of scars and
the number of excess dislocations per scar agree with theoretical predictions
and that the geometrical centers of the scars are roughly positioned at the
vertices of an icosahedron.Comment: 12 pages, 4 Figs, pdf format (typo in title fixed). Revised for
greater clarit
The Role of Bilayer Tilt Difference in Equilibrium Membrane Shapes
Lipid bilayer membranes below their main transition have two tilt order
parameters, corresponding to the two monolayers. These two tilts may be
strongly coupled to membrane shape but only weakly coupled to each other. We
discuss some implications of this observation for rippled and saddle phases,
bilayer tubules, and bicontinuous phases. Tilt difference introduces a length
scale into the elastic theory of tilted fluid membranes. It can drive an
instability of the flat phase; it also provides a simple mechanism for the
spontaneous breaking of inversion symmetry seen in some recent experiments.Comment: Latex file; .ps available at
http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/~nelson/saddle.p
Microscopic View on Short-Range Wetting at the Free Surface of the Binary Metallic Liquid Gallium-Bismuth: An X-ray Reflectivity and Square Gradient Theory Study
We present an x-ray reflectivity study of wetting at the free surface of the
binary liquid metal gallium-bismuth (Ga-Bi) in the region where the bulk phase
separates into Bi-rich and Ga-rich liquid phases. The measurements reveal the
evolution of the microscopic structure of wetting films of the Bi-rich,
low-surface-tension phase along different paths in the bulk phase diagram. A
balance between the surface potential preferring the Bi-rich phase and the
gravitational potential which favors the Ga-rich phase at the surface pins the
interface of the two demixed liquid metallic phases close to the free surface.
This enables us to resolve it on an Angstrom level and to apply a mean-field,
square gradient model extended by thermally activated capillary waves as
dominant thermal fluctuations. The sole free parameter of the gradient model,
i.e. the so-called influence parameter, , is determined from our
measurements. Relying on a calculation of the liquid/liquid interfacial tension
that makes it possible to distinguish between intrinsic and capillary wave
contributions to the interfacial structure we estimate that fluctuations affect
the observed short-range, complete wetting phenomena only marginally. A
critical wetting transition that should be sensitive to thermal fluctuations
seems to be absent in this binary metallic alloy.Comment: RevTex4, twocolumn, 15 pages, 10 figure
Direct Visualization of Dislocation Dynamics in Grain Boundary Scars
Mesoscale objects with unusual structural features may serve as the analogues
of atoms in the design of larger-scale materials with novel optical, electronic
or mechanical behaviour. In this paper we investigate the structural features
and the equilibrium dynamics of micron-scale spherical crystals formed by
polystyrene particles adsorbed on the surface of a spherical water droplet. The
ground state of sufficiently large crystals possesses finite-length grain
boundaries (scars). We determine the elastic response of the crystal by
measuring single-particle diffusion and quantify the fluctuations of individual
dislocations about their equilibrium positions within a scar determining the
dislocation spring constants. We observe rapid dislocation glide with
fluctuations over the barriers separating one local Peierls minimum from the
next and rather weak binding of dislocations to their associated scars. The
long-distance (renormalised) dislocation diffusion glide constant is extracted
directly from the experimental data and is found to be moderately faster than
single particle diffusion. We are also able to determine the parameters of the
Peierls potential induced by the underlying crystalline lattice.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, pdf forma
RAGE and ICAM-1 differentially control leukocyte recruitment during acute inflammation in a stimulus-dependent manner
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The receptor for advanced glycation endproducts, RAGE, is involved in the pathogenesis of many inflammatory conditions, which is mostly related to its strong activation of NF-κB but also due to its function as ligand for the β<sub>2</sub>-integrin Mac-1. To further dissect the stimulus-dependent role of RAGE on leukocyte recruitment during inflammation, we investigated β<sub>2</sub>-integrin-dependent leukocyte adhesion in <it>RAGE<sup>-/- </sup></it>and <it>Icam1<sup>-/- </sup></it>mice in different cremaster muscle models of inflammation using intravital microscopy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We demonstrate that RAGE, but not ICAM-1 substantially contributes to N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP)-induced leukocyte adhesion in TNF-α-pretreated cremaster muscle venules in a Mac-1-dependent manner. In contrast, fMLP-stimulated leukocyte adhesion in unstimulated cremaster muscle venules is independent of RAGE, but dependent on ICAM-1 and its interaction with LFA-1. Furthermore, chemokine CXCL1-stimulated leukocyte adhesion in surgically prepared cremaster muscle venules was independent of RAGE but strongly dependent on ICAM-1 and LFA-1 suggesting a differential and stimulus-dependent regulation of leukocyte adhesion during inflammation in vivo.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results demonstrate that RAGE and ICAM-1 differentially regulate leukocyte adhesion in vivo in a stimulus-dependent manner.</p
The Mechanochemistry of Endocytosis
An integrated theoretical model reveals how the chemical and the mechanical aspects of endocytosis are coordinated coherently in yeast cells, driving progression through the endocytic pathway and ensuring efficient vesicle scission in vivo
Brownian motors: noisy transport far from equilibrium
Transport phenomena in spatially periodic systems far from thermal
equilibrium are considered. The main emphasize is put on directed transport in
so-called Brownian motors (ratchets), i.e. a dissipative dynamics in the
presence of thermal noise and some prototypical perturbation that drives the
system out of equilibrium without introducing a priori an obvious bias into one
or the other direction of motion. Symmetry conditions for the appearance (or
not) of directed current, its inversion upon variation of certain parameters,
and quantitative theoretical predictions for specific models are reviewed as
well as a wide variety of experimental realizations and biological
applications, especially the modeling of molecular motors. Extensions include
quantum mechanical and collective effects, Hamiltonian ratchets, the influence
of spatial disorder, and diffusive transport.Comment: Revised version (Aug. 2001), accepted for publication in Physics
Report
Modeling morphological instabilities in lipid membranes with anchored amphiphilic polymers
Anchoring molecules, like amphiphilic polymers, are able to dynamically regulate membrane morphology. Such molecules insert their hydrophobic groups into the bilayer, generating a local membrane curvature. In order to minimize the elastic energy penalty, a dynamic shape instability may occur, as in the case of the curvature-driven pearling instability or the polymer-induced tubulation of lipid vesicles. We review recent works on modeling of such instabilities by means of a mesoscopic dynamic model of the phase-field kind, which take into account the bending energy of lipid bilayers
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