6,058 research outputs found
Human complement factor H
We isolated cDNA clones coding for the functionally important tryptic N-terminal38-
kDa fragment of human complement control protein factor H using polyclonal and
monoclonal antibodies to screen a human liver cDNA library cloned in a bacterial
expression vector, PEX-1. By testing the reactivity of antibodies specific for the
recombinant proteins produced by individual clones with proteolytic fragments of
serum H the exact position of these cDNA clones within H was mapped. One clone,
H-19, coding for the 38-kDa fragment of H was sequenced and found to code for 289
amino acids derived from the 38-kDa N-terminal fragment as well as for the first 108
amino acids belonging to the complementary 142-kDa tryptic fragment. The derived
protein sequence could be arranged in 6 highly homologous repeats of about 60 amino
acids each, the homology between the repeats being determined by the characteristic
position of cysteine, proline, glycine, tyrosine and tryptophane residues. The region
coding for the epitope recognized by one of our monoclonal antibodies was localized
by subcloning restriction fragments of H-19 into the expression plasmid and testing
for the expression of this epitope
Scaling and memory of intraday volatility return intervals in stock market
We study the return interval between price volatilities that are above
a certain threshold for 31 intraday datasets, including the Standard &
Poor's 500 index and the 30 stocks that form the Dow Jones Industrial index.
For different threshold , the probability density function
scales with the mean interval as
, similar to that found in daily
volatilities. Since the intraday records have significantly more data points
compared to the daily records, we could probe for much higher thresholds
and still obtain good statistics. We find that the scaling function is
consistent for all 31 intraday datasets in various time resolutions, and the
function is well approximated by the stretched exponential, , with and , which indicates the
existence of correlations. We analyze the conditional probability distribution
for following a certain interval , and find
depends on , which demonstrates memory in intraday
return intervals. Also, we find that the mean conditional interval
increases with , consistent with the memory found for
. Moreover, we find that return interval records have long
term correlations with correlation exponents similar to that of volatility
records.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Effect of discontinuity in threshold distribution on the critical behaviour of a random fiber bundle
The critical behaviour of a Random Fiber Bundle Model with mixed uniform
distribution of threshold strengths and global load sharing rule is studied
with a special emphasis on the nature of distribution of avalanches for
different parameters of the distribution. The discontinuity in the threshold
strength distribution of fibers non-trivially modifies the critical stress as
well as puts a restriction on the allowed values of parameters for which the
recursive dynamics approach holds good. The discontinuity leads to a
non-universal behaviour in the avalanche size distribution for smaller values
of avalanche size. We observe that apart from the mean field behaviour for
larger avalanches, a new behaviour for smaller avalanche size is observed as a
critical threshold distribution is approached. The phenomenological
understanding of the above result is provided using the exact analytical result
for the avalanche size distribution. Most interestingly,the prominence of
non-universal behaviour in avalanche size distribution depends on the system
parameters.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, text and figures modifie
Surface phase transitions in one-dimensional channels arranged in a triangular cross-sectional structure: Theory and Monte Carlo simulations
Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis have been carried
out to study the critical behavior in a submonolayer lattice-gas of interacting
monomers adsorbed on one-dimensional channels arranged in a triangular
cross-sectional structure. The model mimics a nanoporous environment, where
each nanotube or unit cell is represented by a one-dimensional array. Two kinds
of lateral interaction energies have been considered: , interaction
energy between nearest-neighbor particles adsorbed along a single channel and
, interaction energy between particles adsorbed across
nearest-neighbor channels. For and , successive planes are
uncorrelated, the system is equivalent to the triangular lattice and the
well-known
ordered phase is found at low temperatures and a coverage, , of 1/3
. In the more general case ( and ), a
competition between interactions along a single channel and a transverse
coupling between sites in neighboring channels allows to evolve to a
three-dimensional adsorbed layer. Consequently, the and structures "propagate" along the
channels and new ordered phases appear in the adlayer. The Monte Carlo
technique was combined with the recently reported Free Energy Minimization
Criterion Approach (FEMCA), to predict the critical temperatures of the
order-disorder transformation. The excellent qualitative agreement between
simulated data and FEMCA results allow us to interpret the physical meaning of
the mechanisms underlying the observed transitions.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure
Power Law of Customers' Expenditures in Convenience Stores
In a convenience store chain, a tail of the cumulative density function of
the expenditure of a person during a single shopping trip follows a power law
with an exponent of -2.5. The exponent is independent of the location of the
store, the shopper's age, the day of week, and the time of day.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of the
Physical Society of Japan Vol.77No.
A generalized spherical version of the Blume-Emery-Griffits model with ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions
We have investigated analitycally the phase diagram of a generalized
spherical version of the Blume-Emery-Griffiths model that includes
ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic spin interactions as well as quadrupole
interactions in zero and nonzero magnetic field. We show that in three
dimensions and zero magnetic field a regular paramagnetic-ferromagnetic (PM-FM)
or a paramagnetic-antiferromagnetic (PM-AFM) phase transition occurs whenever
the magnetic spin interactions dominate over the quadrupole interactions.
However, when spin and quadrupole interactions are important, there appears a
reentrant FM-PM or AFM-PM phase transition at low temperatures, in addition to
the regular PM-FM or PM-AFM phase transitions. On the other hand, in a nonzero
homogeneous external magnetic field , we find no evidence of a transition to
the state with spontaneous magnetization for FM interactions in three
dimensions. Nonethelesss, for AFM interactions we do get a scenario similar to
that described above for zero external magnetic field, except that the critical
temperatures are now functions of . We also find two critical field values,
, at which the reentrance phenomenon dissapears and
(), above which the PM-AFM transition temperature
vanishes.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figs. Title changed, abstract and introduction as well as
section IV were rewritten relaxing the emphasis on spin S=1 and Figs. 5 an 6
were improved in presentation. However, all the results remain valid.
Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Earthquake networks based on similar activity patterns
Earthquakes are a complex spatiotemporal phenomenon, the underlying mechanism
for which is still not fully understood despite decades of research and
analysis. We propose and develop a network approach to earthquake events. In
this network, a node represents a spatial location while a link between two
nodes represents similar activity patterns in the two different locations. The
strength of a link is proportional to the strength of the cross-correlation in
activities of two nodes joined by the link. We apply our network approach to a
Japanese earthquake catalog spanning the 14-year period 1985-1998. We find
strong links representing large correlations between patterns in locations
separated by more than 1000 km, corroborating prior observations that
earthquake interactions have no characteristic length scale. We find network
characteristics not attributable to chance alone, including a large number of
network links, high node assortativity, and strong stability over time.Comment: 8 pages text, 9 figures. Updated from previous versio
Dynamically Slow Processes in Supercooled Water Confined Between Hydrophobic Plates
We study the dynamics of water confined between hydrophobic flat surfaces at
low temperature. At different pressures, we observe different behaviors that we
understand in terms of the hydrogen bonds dynamics. At high pressure, the
formation of the open structure of the hydrogen bond network is inhibited and
the surfaces can be rapidly dehydrated by decreasing the temperature. At lower
pressure the rapid ordering of the hydrogen bonds generates heterogeneities
that are responsible for strong non-exponential behavior of the correlation
function, but with no strong increase of the correlation time. At very low
pressures, the gradual formation of the hydrogen bond network is responsible
for the large increase of the correlation time and, eventually, the dynamical
arrest of the system and of the dehydration process.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
The Fractal Geometry of Critical Systems
We investigate the geometry of a critical system undergoing a second order
thermal phase transition. Using a local description for the dynamics
characterizing the system at the critical point T=Tc, we reveal the formation
of clusters with fractal geometry, where the term cluster is used to describe
regions with a nonvanishing value of the order parameter. We show that,
treating the cluster as an open subsystem of the entire system, new
instanton-like configurations dominate the statistical mechanics of the
cluster. We study the dependence of the resulting fractal dimension on the
embedding dimension and the scaling properties (isothermal critical exponent)
of the system. Taking into account the finite size effects we are able to
calculate the size of the critical cluster in terms of the total size of the
system, the critical temperature and the effective coupling of the long
wavelength interaction at the critical point. We also show that the size of the
cluster has to be identified with the correlation length at criticality.
Finally, within the framework of the mean field approximation, we extend our
local considerations to obtain a global description of the system.Comment: 1 LaTeX file, 4 figures in ps-files. Accepted for publication in
Physical Review
Quarantine generated phase transition in epidemic spreading
We study the critical effect of quarantine on the propagation of epidemics on
an adaptive network of social contacts. For this purpose, we analyze the
susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model in the presence of quarantine, where
susceptible individuals protect themselves by disconnecting their links to
infected neighbors with probability w, and reconnecting them to other
susceptible individuals chosen at random. Starting from a single infected
individual, we show by an analytical approach and simulations that there is a
phase transition at a critical rewiring (quarantine) threshold w_c separating a
phase (w<w_c) where the disease reaches a large fraction of the population,
from a phase (w >= w_c) where the disease does not spread out. We find that in
our model the topology of the network strongly affects the size of the
propagation, and that w_c increases with the mean degree and heterogeneity of
the network. We also find that w_c is reduced if we perform a preferential
rewiring, in which the rewiring probability is proportional to the degree of
infected nodes.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
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