2,846 research outputs found
Organized condensation of worm-like chains
We present results relevant to the equilibrium organization of DNA strands of
arbitrary length interacting with a spherical organizing center, suggestive of
DNA-histone complexation in nucleosomes. We obtain a rich phase diagram in
which a wrapping state is transformed into a complex multi-leafed, rosette
structure as the adhesion energy is reduced. The statistical mechanics of the
"melting" of a rosette can be mapped into an exactly soluble one-dimensional
many-body problem.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures in a pdf fil
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
Exact Lyapunov Exponent for Infinite Products of Random Matrices
In this work, we give a rigorous explicit formula for the Lyapunov exponent
for some binary infinite products of random real matrices. All
these products are constructed using only two types of matrices, and ,
which are chosen according to a stochastic process. The matrix is singular,
namely its determinant is zero. This formula is derived by using a particular
decomposition for the matrix , which allows us to write the Lyapunov
exponent as a sum of convergent series. Finally, we show with an example that
the Lyapunov exponent is a discontinuous function of the given parameter.Comment: 1 pages, CPT-93/P.2974,late
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
Analysis of electroencephalograms in Alzheimer's disease patients with multiscale entropy
The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using the Multiscale Entropy (MSE). The MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant difference
Adiabatic-antiadiabatic crossover in a spin-Peierls chain
We consider an XXZ spin-1/2 chain coupled to optical phonons with non-zero
frequency . In the adiabatic limit (small ), the chain is
expected to spontaneously dimerize and open a spin gap, while the phonons
become static. In the antiadiabatic limit (large ), phonons are
expected to give rise to frustration, so that dimerization and formation of
spin-gap are obtained only when the spin-phonon interaction is large enough. We
study this crossover using bosonization technique. The effective action is
solved both by the Self Consistent Harmonic Approximation (SCHA)and by
Renormalization Group (RG) approach starting from a bosonized description. The
SCHA allows to analyze the lowfrequency regime and determine the coupling
constant associated with the spin-Peierls transition. However, it fails to
describe the SU(2) invariant limit. This limit is tackled by the RG. Three
regimes are found. For , where is the gap in
the static limit , the system is in the adiabatic regime, and
the gap remains of order . For , the system enters
the antiadiabatic regime, and the gap decreases rapidly as
increases. Finally, for , where is an
increasing function of the spin phonon coupling, the spin gap vanishes via a
Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Our results are discussed in
relation with numerical and experimental studies of spin-Peierls systems.Comment: Revtex, 21 pages, 5 EPS figures (v1); 23 pages, 6 EPS figures, more
detailed comparison with ED results, referenes added (v2
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
Hill's Equation with Random Forcing Parameters: Determination of Growth Rates through Random Matrices
This paper derives expressions for the growth rates for the random 2 x 2
matrices that result from solutions to the random Hill's equation. The
parameters that appear in Hill's equation include the forcing strength and
oscillation frequency. The development of the solutions to this periodic
differential equation can be described by a discrete map, where the matrix
elements are given by the principal solutions for each cycle. Variations in the
forcing strength and oscillation frequency lead to matrix elements that vary
from cycle to cycle. This paper presents an analysis of the growth rates
including cases where all of the cycles are highly unstable, where some cycles
are near the stability border, and where the map would be stable in the absence
of fluctuations. For all of these regimes, we provide expressions for the
growth rates of the matrices that describe the solutions.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure
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