594 research outputs found
Gating of TonB-dependent transporters by substrate-specific forced remodelling
Membrane proteins play vital roles in inside-out and outside-in signal transduction by responding to inputs that include mechanical stimuli. Mechanical gating may be mediated by the membrane or by protein(s) but evidence for the latter is scarce. Here we use force spectroscopy, protein engineering and bacterial growth assays to investigate the effects of force on complexes formed between TonB and TonB-dependent transporters (TBDT) from Gram-negative bacteria. We confirm the feasibility of protein-only mediated mechanical gating by demonstrating that the interaction between TonB and BtuB (a TBDT) is sufficiently strong under force to create a channel through the TBDT. In addition, by comparing the dimensions of the force-induced channel in BtuB and a second TBDT (FhuA), we show that the mechanical properties of the interaction are perfectly tuned to their function by inducing formation of a channel whose dimensions are tailored to the ligand
Unfolding dynamics of proteins under applied force
Understanding the mechanisms of protein folding is a major challenge that is being addressed effectively by collaboration between researchers in the physical and life sciences. Recently, it has become possible to mechanically unfold proteins by pulling on their two termini using local force probes such as the atomic force microscope. Here, we present data from experiments in which synthetic protein polymers designed to mimic naturally occurring polyproteins have been mechanically unfolded. For many years protein folding dynamics have been studied using chemical denaturation, and we therefore firstly discuss our mechanical unfolding data in the context of such experiments and show that the two unfolding mechanisms are not the same, at least for the proteins studied here. We also report unexpected observations that indicate a history effect in the observed unfolding forces of polymeric proteins and explain this in terms of the changing number of domains remaining to unfold and the increasing compliance of the lengthening unstructured polypeptide chain produced each time a domain unfolds
Emission-aware Energy Storage Scheduling for a Greener Grid
Reducing our reliance on carbon-intensive energy sources is vital for
reducing the carbon footprint of the electric grid. Although the grid is seeing
increasing deployments of clean, renewable sources of energy, a significant
portion of the grid demand is still met using traditional carbon-intensive
energy sources. In this paper, we study the problem of using energy storage
deployed in the grid to reduce the grid's carbon emissions. While energy
storage has previously been used for grid optimizations such as peak shaving
and smoothing intermittent sources, our insight is to use distributed storage
to enable utilities to reduce their reliance on their less efficient and most
carbon-intensive power plants and thereby reduce their overall emission
footprint. We formulate the problem of emission-aware scheduling of distributed
energy storage as an optimization problem, and use a robust optimization
approach that is well-suited for handling the uncertainty in load predictions,
especially in the presence of intermittent renewables such as solar and wind.
We evaluate our approach using a state of the art neural network load
forecasting technique and real load traces from a distribution grid with 1,341
homes. Our results show a reduction of >0.5 million kg in annual carbon
emissions -- equivalent to a drop of 23.3% in our electric grid emissions.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure, This paper will appear in the Proceedings of the
ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (e-Energy 20) June
2020, Australi
Statistical Consequences of Devroye Inequality for Processes. Applications to a Class of Non-Uniformly Hyperbolic Dynamical Systems
In this paper, we apply Devroye inequality to study various statistical
estimators and fluctuations of observables for processes. Most of these
observables are suggested by dynamical systems. These applications concern the
co-variance function, the integrated periodogram, the correlation dimension,
the kernel density estimator, the speed of convergence of empirical measure,
the shadowing property and the almost-sure central limit theorem. We proved in
\cite{CCS} that Devroye inequality holds for a class of non-uniformly
hyperbolic dynamical systems introduced in \cite{young}. In the second appendix
we prove that, if the decay of correlations holds with a common rate for all
pairs of functions, then it holds uniformly in the function spaces. In the last
appendix we prove that for the subclass of one-dimensional systems studied in
\cite{young} the density of the absolutely continuous invariant measure belongs
to a Besov space.Comment: 33 pages; companion of the paper math.DS/0412166; corrected version;
to appear in Nonlinearit
Precursors of extreme increments
We investigate precursors and predictability of extreme increments in a time
series. The events we are focusing on consist in large increments within
successive time steps. We are especially interested in understanding how the
quality of the predictions depends on the strategy to choose precursors, on the
size of the event and on the correlation strength. We study the prediction of
extreme increments analytically in an AR(1) process, and numerically in wind
speed recordings and long-range correlated ARMA data. We evaluate the success
of predictions via receiver operator characteristics (ROC-curves). Furthermore,
we observe an increase of the quality of predictions with increasing event size
and with decreasing correlation in all examples. Both effects can be understood
by using the likelihood ratio as a summary index for smooth ROC-curves
An Adaptive Interacting Wang-Landau Algorithm for Automatic Density Exploration
While statisticians are well-accustomed to performing exploratory analysis in
the modeling stage of an analysis, the notion of conducting preliminary
general-purpose exploratory analysis in the Monte Carlo stage (or more
generally, the model-fitting stage) of an analysis is an area which we feel
deserves much further attention. Towards this aim, this paper proposes a
general-purpose algorithm for automatic density exploration. The proposed
exploration algorithm combines and expands upon components from various
adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, with the Wang-Landau algorithm at
its heart. Additionally, the algorithm is run on interacting parallel chains --
a feature which both decreases computational cost as well as stabilizes the
algorithm, improving its ability to explore the density. Performance is studied
in several applications. Through a Bayesian variable selection example, the
authors demonstrate the convergence gains obtained with interacting chains. The
ability of the algorithm's adaptive proposal to induce mode-jumping is
illustrated through a trimodal density and a Bayesian mixture modeling
application. Lastly, through a 2D Ising model, the authors demonstrate the
ability of the algorithm to overcome the high correlations encountered in
spatial models.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures (the supplementary materials are included as
appendices
Tracing the temporal evolution of clusters in a financial stock market
We propose a methodology for clustering financial time series of stocks'
returns, and a graphical set-up to quantify and visualise the evolution of
these clusters through time. The proposed graphical representation allows for
the application of well known algorithms for solving classical combinatorial
graph problems, which can be interpreted as problems relevant to portfolio
design and investment strategies. We illustrate this graph representation of
the evolution of clusters in time and its use on real data from the Madrid
Stock Exchange market.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures (submitted for publication
Substitution of Met-38 to Ile in γ-synuclein found in two patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis induces aggregation into amyloid
\ua9 2024 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.α-,β-,and γ-Synuclein are intrinsically disordered proteins implicated in physiological processes in the nervous system of vertebrates. α-synuclein (αSyn) is the amyloidogenic protein associated with Parkinson\u27s disease and certain other neurodegenerative disorders. Intensive research has focused on the mechanisms that cause αSyn to form amyloid structures, identifying its NAC region as being necessary and sufficient for amyloid assembly. Recent work has shown that a 7-residue sequence (P1) is necessary for αSyn amyloid formation. Although γ-synuclein (γSyn) is 55% identical in sequence to αSyn and its pathological deposits are also observed in association with neurodegenerative conditions, γSyn is resilient to amyloid formation in vitro. Here, we report a rare single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the SNCG gene encoding γSyn, found in two patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The SNP results in the substitution of Met38 with Ile in the P1 region of the protein. These individuals also had a second, common and nonpathological, SNP in SNCG resulting in the substitution of Glu110 with Val. In vitro studies demonstrate that the Ile38 variant accelerates amyloid fibril assembly. Contrastingly, Val110 retards fibril assembly and mitigates the effect of Ile38. Substitution of residue 38 with Leu had little effect, while Val retards, and Ala increases the rate of amyloid formation. Ile38 γSyn also results in the formation of γSyn-containing inclusions in cells. The results show how a single point substitution can enhance amyloid formation of γSyn and highlight the P1 region in driving amyloid formation in another synuclein family member
A Closed-Form Solution of the Multi-Period Portfolio Choice Problem for a Quadratic Utility Function
In the present paper, we derive a closed-form solution of the multi-period
portfolio choice problem for a quadratic utility function with and without a
riskless asset. All results are derived under weak conditions on the asset
returns. No assumption on the correlation structure between different time
points is needed and no assumption on the distribution is imposed. All
expressions are presented in terms of the conditional mean vectors and the
conditional covariance matrices. If the multivariate process of the asset
returns is independent it is shown that in the case without a riskless asset
the solution is presented as a sequence of optimal portfolio weights obtained
by solving the single-period Markowitz optimization problem. The process
dynamics are included only in the shape parameter of the utility function. If a
riskless asset is present then the multi-period optimal portfolio weights are
proportional to the single-period solutions multiplied by time-varying
constants which are depending on the process dynamics. Remarkably, in the case
of a portfolio selection with the tangency portfolio the multi-period solution
coincides with the sequence of the simple-period solutions. Finally, we compare
the suggested strategies with existing multi-period portfolio allocation
methods for real data.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, changes: VAR(1)-CCC-GARCH(1,1) process
dynamics and the analysis of increasing horizon are included in the
simulation study, under revision in Annals of Operations Researc
Mechanical Strength of 17 134 Model Proteins and Cysteine Slipknots
A new theoretical survey of proteins' resistance to constant speed stretching
is performed for a set of 17 134 proteins as described by a structure-based
model. The proteins selected have no gaps in their structure determination and
consist of no more than 250 amino acids. Our previous studies have dealt with
7510 proteins of no more than 150 amino acids. The proteins are ranked
according to the strength of the resistance. Most of the predicted top-strength
proteins have not yet been studied experimentally. Architectures and folds
which are likely to yield large forces are identified. New types of potent
force clamps are discovered. They involve disulphide bridges and, in
particular, cysteine slipknots. An effective energy parameter of the model is
estimated by comparing the theoretical data on characteristic forces to the
corresponding experimental values combined with an extrapolation of the
theoretical data to the experimental pulling speeds. These studies provide
guidance for future experiments on single molecule manipulation and should lead
to selection of proteins for applications. A new class of proteins, involving
cystein slipknots, is identified as one that is expected to lead to the
strongest force clamps known. This class is characterized through molecular
dynamics simulations.Comment: 40 pages, 13 PostScript figure
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