270 research outputs found
Metabolic and haemodynamic effects of oral glucose loading in young healthy men carrying the 825T-allele of the G protein β3 subunit
BACKGROUND: A C825T polymorphism was recently identified in the gene encoding the β3 subunit of heterotrimeric G-proteins (GNB3). The T-allele is significantly associated with essential hypertension and obesity. In order to further explore a possible pathogenetic link between the T-allele and impaired glucose tolerance we studied metabolic and haemodynamic responses to oral glucose loading in young, healthy subjects with and without the 825T-allele. METHODS: Twelve subjects with and 10 without the 825T-allele were investigated at rest and following glucose ingestion (75 g). Blood glucose, serum insulin and haemodynamics were determined prior to and over 2 hours following glucose ingestion. We non-invasively measured stroke volume (SV, by impedance-cardiography), blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and systolic-time-intervals. Cardiac output (CO) was calculated from HR and SV. Total peripheral resistance was calculated from CO and BP. Metabolic and haemodynamic changes were quantified by maximal responses and by calculation of areas under the concentration time profile (AUC). Significances of differences between subjects with and without the T-allele were determined by unpaired two-tailed t-tests. A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Metabolic and haemodynamic parameters at baseline were very similar between both groups. The presence of the T-allele did not alter the response of any metabolic or haemodynamic parameter to glucose loading. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study does not support the hypothesis that the C825T polymorphism may serve as a genetic marker of early impaired glucose tolerance
Lee-Yang zeros and phase transitions in nonequilibrium steady states
We consider how the Lee-Yang description of phase transitions in terms of
partition function zeros applies to nonequilibrium systems. Here one does not
have a partition function, instead we consider the zeros of a steady-state
normalization factor in the complex plane of the transition rates. We obtain
the exact distribution of zeros in the thermodynamic limit for a specific
model, the boundary-driven asymmetric simple exclusion process. We show that
the distributions of zeros at the first and second order nonequilibrium phase
transitions of this model follow the patterns known in the Lee-Yang equilibrium
theory.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX4 with 4 figures; revised version to appear in Phys.
Rev. Let
Yang-Lee zeros for a nonequilibrium phase transition
Equilibrium systems which exhibit a phase transition can be studied by
investigating the complex zeros of the partition function. This method,
pioneered by Yang and Lee, has been widely used in equilibrium statistical
physics. We show that an analogous treatment is possible for a nonequilibrium
phase transition into an absorbing state. By investigating the complex zeros of
the survival probability of directed percolation processes we demonstrate that
the zeros provide information about universal properties. Moreover we identify
certain non-trivial points where the survival probability for bond percolation
can be computed exactly.Comment: LaTeX, IOP-style, 13 pages, 10 eps figure
Spreading with immunization in high dimensions
We investigate a model of epidemic spreading with partial immunization which
is controlled by two probabilities, namely, for first infections, , and
reinfections, . When the two probabilities are equal, the model reduces to
directed percolation, while for perfect immunization one obtains the general
epidemic process belonging to the universality class of dynamical percolation.
We focus on the critical behavior in the vicinity of the directed percolation
point, especially in high dimensions . It is argued that the clusters of
immune sites are compact for . This observation implies that a
recently introduced scaling argument, suggesting a stretched exponential decay
of the survival probability for , in one spatial dimension,
where denotes the critical threshold for directed percolation, should
apply in any dimension and maybe for as well. Moreover, we
show that the phase transition line, connecting the critical points of directed
percolation and of dynamical percolation, terminates in the critical point of
directed percolation with vanishing slope for and with finite slope for
. Furthermore, an exponent is identified for the temporal correlation
length for the case of and , , which
is different from the exponent of directed percolation. We also
improve numerical estimates of several critical parameters and exponents,
especially for dynamical percolation in .Comment: LaTeX, IOP-style, 18 pages, 9 eps figures, minor changes, additional
reference
Nonequilibrium stationary states and equilibrium models with long range interactions
It was recently suggested by Blythe and Evans that a properly defined steady
state normalisation factor can be seen as a partition function of a fictitious
statistical ensemble in which the transition rates of the stochastic process
play the role of fugacities. In analogy with the Lee-Yang description of phase
transition of equilibrium systems, they studied the zeroes in the complex plane
of the normalisation factor in order to find phase transitions in
nonequilibrium steady states. We show that like for equilibrium systems, the
``densities'' associated to the rates are non-decreasing functions of the rates
and therefore one can obtain the location and nature of phase transitions
directly from the analytical properties of the ``densities''. We illustrate
this phenomenon for the asymmetric exclusion process. We actually show that its
normalisation factor coincides with an equilibrium partition function of a walk
model in which the ``densities'' have a simple physical interpretation.Comment: LaTeX, 23 pages, 3 EPS figure
Dyck Paths, Motzkin Paths and Traffic Jams
It has recently been observed that the normalization of a one-dimensional
out-of-equilibrium model, the Asymmetric Exclusion Process (ASEP) with random
sequential dynamics, is exactly equivalent to the partition function of a
two-dimensional lattice path model of one-transit walks, or equivalently Dyck
paths. This explains the applicability of the Lee-Yang theory of partition
function zeros to the ASEP normalization.
In this paper we consider the exact solution of the parallel-update ASEP, a
special case of the Nagel-Schreckenberg model for traffic flow, in which the
ASEP phase transitions can be intepreted as jamming transitions, and find that
Lee-Yang theory still applies. We show that the parallel-update ASEP
normalization can be expressed as one of several equivalent two-dimensional
lattice path problems involving weighted Dyck or Motzkin paths. We introduce
the notion of thermodynamic equivalence for such paths and show that the
robustness of the general form of the ASEP phase diagram under various update
dynamics is a consequence of this thermodynamic equivalence.Comment: Version accepted for publicatio
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