2,426 research outputs found
Equilibrium Bundle Size of Rodlike Polyelectrolytes with Counterion-Induced Attractive Interactions
Multivalent counterions can induce an effective attraction between
like-charged rodlike polyelectrolytes, leading to the formation of
polelectrolyte bundles. In this paper, we calculate the equilibrium bundle size
using a simple model in which the attraction between polyelectrolytes (assumed
to be pairwise additive) is treated phenomenologically. If the counterions are
point-like, they almost completely neutralize the charge of the bundle, and the
equilibrium bundle size diverges. When the counterions are large, however,
steric and short-range electrostatic interactions prevent charge neutralization
of the bundle, thus forcing the equilibrium bundle size to be finite. We also
consider the possibility that increasing the number of nearest neighbors for
each rod in the bundle frustrates the attractive interaction between the rods.
Such a frustration leads to the formation of finite size bundles as well, even
when the counterions are small.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; v2: typos corrected, references added, minor
changes made to conten
Role of Multipoles in Counterion-Mediated Interactions between Charged Surfaces: Strong and Weak Coupling
We present general arguments for the importance, or lack thereof, of the
structure in the charge distribution of counterions for counterion-mediated
interactions between bounding symmetrically charged surfaces. We show that on
the mean field or weak coupling level, the charge quadrupole contributes the
lowest order modification to the contact value theorem and thus to the
intersurface electrostatic interactions. The image effects are non-existent on
the mean-field level even with multipoles. On the strong coupling level the
quadrupoles and higher order multipoles contribute additional terms to the
interaction free energy only in the presence of dielectric inhomogeneities.
Without them, the monopole is the only multipole that contributes to the strong
coupling electrostatics. We explore the consequences of these statements in all
their generality.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Charge-Fluctuation-Induced Non-analytic Bending Rigidity
In this Letter, we consider a neutral system of mobile positive and negative
charges confined on the surface of curved films. This may be an appropriate
model for: i) a highly charged membrane whose counterions are confined to a
sheath near its surface; ii) a membrane composed of an equimolar mixture of
anionic and cationic surfactants in aqueous solution. We find that the charge
fluctuations contribute a non-analytic term to the bending rigidity that varies
logarithmically with the radius of curvature. This may lead to spontaneous
vesicle formation, which is indeed observed in similar systems.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages, no figures, submitted to PR
Electrolytic depletion interactions
We consider the interactions between two uncharged planar macroscopic
surfaces immersed in an electrolyte solution which are induced by interfacial
selectivity. These forces are taken into account by introducing a depletion
free-energy density functional, in addition to the usual mean-field
Poisson-Boltzmann functional. The minimization of the total free-energy
functional yields the density profiles of the microions and the electrostatic
potential. The disjoining pressure is obtained by differentiation of the total
free energy with respect to the separation of the surfaces, holding the range
and strength of the depletion forces constant. We find that the induced
interaction between the two surfaces is always repulsive for sufficiently large
separations, and becomes attractive at shorter separations. The nature of the
induced interactions changes from attractive to repulsive at a distance
corresponding to the range of the depletion forces.Comment: 17 pages, 4 Postscript figures, submitted to Physical Review
Surface Shape and Local Critical Behaviour in Two-Dimensional Directed Percolation
Two-dimensional directed site percolation is studied in systems directed
along the x-axis and limited by a free surface at y=\pm Cx^k. Scaling
considerations show that the surface is a relevant perturbation to the local
critical behaviour when k<1/z where z=\nu_\parallel/\nu is the dynamical
exponent. The tip-to-bulk order parameter correlation function is calculated in
the mean-field approximation. The tip percolation probability and the fractal
dimensions of critical clusters are obtained through Monte-Carlo simulations.
The tip order parameter has a nonuniversal, C-dependent, scaling dimension in
the marginal case, k=1/z, and displays a stretched exponential behaviour when
the perturbation is relevant. The k-dependence of the fractal dimensions in the
relevant case is in agreement with the results of a blob picture approach.Comment: 13 pages, Plain TeX file, epsf, 6 postscript-figures, minor
correction
Membranes in rod solutions: a system with spontaneously broken symmetry
We consider a dilute solution of infinitely rigid rods near a curved,
perfectly repulsive surface and study the contribution of the rod depletion
layer to the bending elastic constants of membranes. We find that a spontaneous
curvature state can be induced by exposure of BOTH sides of the membrane to a
rod solution. A similar result applies for rigid disks with a diameter equal to
the rod's length. We also study the confinement of rods in spherical and
cylindrical repulsive shells. This helps elucidate a recent discussion on
curvature effects in confined quantum mechanical and polymer systems.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; submitted to PR
Geometric Random Inner Products: A New Family of Tests for Random Number Generators
We present a new computational scheme, GRIP (Geometric Random Inner
Products), for testing the quality of random number generators. The GRIP
formalism utilizes geometric probability techniques to calculate the average
scalar products of random vectors generated in geometric objects, such as
circles and spheres. We show that these average scalar products define a family
of geometric constants which can be used to evaluate the quality of random
number generators. We explicitly apply the GRIP tests to several random number
generators frequently used in Monte Carlo simulations, and demonstrate a new
statistical property for good random number generators
Voices of girls with disabilities in rural Iran
This paper investigates the interaction of gender, disability and education in rural Iran, which is a relatively unexplored field of research. The responses of 10 female students with disabilities from Isfahan indicated that the obstacles they faced included marginalization, difficulties in getting from home to school, difficulties within the school building itself, and discrimination by teachers, classmates and school authorities. The data collected for the study contain a wide range of conservative gendered discourses, and show how traditional gender beliefs interact with disability to aggravate the problems faced in education by young women with disabilities. It is hoped that the findings will raise awareness among policy-makers of the many formidable obstacles that make it difficult for young women with disabilities to achieve their full potential in education
Screening by symmetry of long-range hydrodynamic interactions of polymers confined in sheets
Hydrodynamic forces may significantly affect the motion of polymers. In
sheet-like cavities, such as the cell's cytoplasm and microfluidic channels,
the hydrodynamic forces are long-range. It is therefore expected that that
hydrodynamic interactions will dominate the motion of polymers in sheets and
will be manifested by Zimm-like scaling. Quite the opposite, we note here that
although the hydrodynamic forces are long-range their overall effect on the
motion of polymers vanishes due to the symmetry of the two-dimensional flow. As
a result, the predicted scaling of experimental observables such as the
diffusion coefficient or the rotational diffusion time is Rouse-like, in accord
with recent experiments. The effective screening validates the use of the
non-interacting blobs picture for polymers confined in a sheet.Comment: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/papers/Macromolecules2006.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ma060251
Crowding Promotes the Switch from Hairpin to Pseudoknot Conformation in Human Telomerase RNA
Formation of a pseudoknot in the conserved RNA core domain in the
ribonucleoprotein human telomerase is required for function. In vitro
experiments show that the pseudoknot (PK) is in equilibrium with an extended
hairpin (HP) structure. We use molecular simulations of a coarse-grained model,
which reproduces most of the salient features of the experimental melting
profiles of PK and HP, to show that crowding enhances the stability of PK
relative to HP in the wild type and in a mutant associated with dyskeratosis
congenita. In monodisperse suspensions, small crowding particles increase the
stability of compact structures to a greater extent than larger crowders. If
the sizes of crowders in a binary mixture are smaller than the unfolded RNA,
the increase in melting temperature due to the two components is additive. In a
ternary mixture of crowders that are larger than the unfolded RNA, which mimics
the composition of ribosome, large enzyme complexes and proteins in E. coli,
the marginal increase in stability is entirely determined by the smallest
component. We predict that crowding can restore partially telomerase activity
in mutants, which dramatically decrease the PK stability.Comment: File "JACS_MAIN_archive_PDF_from_DOC.pdf" (PDF created from DOC)
contains the main text of the paper File JACS_SI_archive.tex + 7 figures are
the supplementary inf
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