1,608 research outputs found
Numerical electrokinetics
A new lattice method is presented in order to efficiently solve the
electrokinetic equations, which describe the structure and dynamics of the
charge cloud and the flow field surrounding a single charged colloidal sphere,
or a fixed array of such objects. We focus on calculating the electrophoretic
mobility in the limit of small driving field, and systematically linearise the
equations with respect to the latter. This gives rise to several subproblems,
each of which is solved by a specialised numerical algorithm. For the total
problem we combine these solvers in an iterative procedure. Applying this
method, we study the effect of the screening mechanism (salt screening vs.
counterion screening) on the electrophoretic mobility, and find a weak
non-trivial dependence, as expected from scaling theory. Furthermore, we find
that the orientation of the charge cloud (i. e. its dipole moment) depends on
the value of the colloid charge, as a result of a competition between
electrostatic and hydrodynamic effects.Comment: accepted for publication in Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
(proceedings of the 2012 CODEF conference
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The role of integrated databases in microbial genome sequence analysis and metabolic reconstruction
This paper provides an overview of the PUMA system which provides access to data about metabolic pathways, enzymes, compounds, organisms, encoded activity, and assay condition information for enzymes in particular organisms and multiple sequence alignments
Outbursts of EX Hydrae: mass-transfer events or disc instabilities?
We present the 45-yr record of the light curve of EX Hya, and discuss the characteristics of its 15 observed outbursts. We then concentrate on the 1998 outburst, reporting the first outburst X-ray observations. We discover an X-ray beat-cycle modulation, indicating that an enhanced accretion stream couples directly with the magnetosphere in outburst, confirming our previous prediction. Optical eclipse profiles late in outburst show that the visible light is dominated by an enhanced mass-transfer stream overflowing the accretion disc. We are uncertain whether the enhanced mass transfer is triggered by a disc instability, or by some other cause. While in outburst, EX Hya shows some of the characteristics of SW Sex stars
Solar System Objects in the ISOPHOT 170 micron Serendipity Survey
The ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (ISOSS) covered approximately 15 % of the sky
at a wavelength of 170 micron while the ISO satellite was slewing from one
target to the next. By chance ISOSS slews went over many solar system objects
(SSOs). We identified the comets, asteroids and planets in the slews through a
fast and effective search procedure based on N-body ephemeris and flux
estimates. The detections were analysed from a calibration and scientific point
of view. Through the measurements of the well-known asteroids Ceres, Pallas,
Juno and Vesta and the planets Uranus and Neptune it was possible to improve
the photometric calibration of ISOSS and to extend it to higher flux regimes.
We were also able to establish calibration schemes for the important slew end
data. For the other asteroids we derived radiometric diameters and albedos
through a recent thermophysical model. The scientific results are discussed in
the context of our current knowledge of size, shape and albedos, derived from
IRAS observations, occultation measurements and lightcurve inversion
techniques. In all cases where IRAS observations were available we confirm the
derived diameters and albedos. For the five asteroids without IRAS detections
only one was clearly detected and the radiometric results agreed with sizes
given by occultation and HST observations. Four different comets have clearly
been detected at 170 micron and two have marginal detections. The observational
results are presented to be used by thermal comet models in the future. The
nine ISOSS slews over Hale-Bopp revealed extended and asymmetric structures
related to the dust tail. We attribute the enhanced emission in post-perihelion
observations to large particles around the nucleus. The signal patterns are
indicative of a concentration of the particles in trail direction.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 6 tables; Accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysic
Self-similarity of complex networks
Complex networks have been studied extensively due to their relevance to many
real systems as diverse as the World-Wide-Web (WWW), the Internet, energy
landscapes, biological and social networks
\cite{ab-review,mendes,vespignani,newman,amaral}. A large number of real
networks are called ``scale-free'' because they show a power-law distribution
of the number of links per node \cite{ab-review,barabasi1999,faloutsos}.
However, it is widely believed that complex networks are not {\it length-scale}
invariant or self-similar. This conclusion originates from the ``small-world''
property of these networks, which implies that the number of nodes increases
exponentially with the ``diameter'' of the network
\cite{erdos,bollobas,milgram,watts}, rather than the power-law relation
expected for a self-similar structure. Nevertheless, here we present a novel
approach to the analysis of such networks, revealing that their structure is
indeed self-similar. This result is achieved by the application of a
renormalization procedure which coarse-grains the system into boxes containing
nodes within a given "size". Concurrently, we identify a power-law relation
between the number of boxes needed to cover the network and the size of the box
defining a finite self-similar exponent. These fundamental properties, which
are shown for the WWW, social, cellular and protein-protein interaction
networks, help to understand the emergence of the scale-free property in
complex networks. They suggest a common self-organization dynamics of diverse
networks at different scales into a critical state and in turn bring together
previously unrelated fields: the statistical physics of complex networks with
renormalization group, fractals and critical phenomena.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, more informations at http://www.jamlab.or
Volume terms for charged colloids: a grand-canonical treatment
We present a study of thermodynamic properties of suspensions of charged
colloids on the basis of linear Poisson-Boltzmann theory. We calculate the
effective Hamiltonian of the colloids by integrating out the ionic degrees of
freedom grand-canonically. This procedure not only yields the well-known
pairwise screened-Coulomb interaction between the colloids, but also additional
volume terms which affect the phase behavior and the thermodynamic properties
such as the osmotic pressure. These calculations are greatly facilitated by the
grand-canonical character of our treatment of the ions, and allow for
relatively fast computations compared to earlier studies in the canonical
ensemble. Moreover, the present derivation of the volume terms are relatively
simple, make a direct connection with Donnan equilibrium, yield an explicit
expression for the effective screening constant, and allow for extensions to
include, for instance, nonlinear effects.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, published in Phys.Rev.
Outbursts of EX Hydrae: mass-transfer events or disc instabilities?
We present the 45-yr record of EX Hya's lightcurve and discuss the
characteristics of its 15 observed outbursts. We then concentrate on the 1998
outburst, reporting the first outburst X-ray observations. We discover an X-ray
beat-cycle modulation, indicating that an enhanced accretion stream couples
directly with the magnetosphere in outburst, confirming our previous
prediction. Optical eclipse profiles late in outburst show that the visible
light is dominated by an enhanced mass-transfer stream overflowing the
accretion disc. We are uncertain whether the enhanced mass transfer is
triggered by a disc instability, or by some other cause. While in outburst, EX
Hya shows some of the characteristics of SW Sex stars.Comment: To appear in MNRAS (8 pages; 9 figs
A Novel Bioinformatics Strategy for Function Prediction of Poorly-Characterized Protein Genes Obtained from Metagenome Analyses
As a result of remarkable progresses of DNA sequencing technology, vast quantities of genomic sequences have been decoded. Homology search for amino acid sequences, such as BLAST, has become a basic tool for assigning functions of genes/proteins when genomic sequences are decoded. Although the homology search has clearly been a powerful and irreplaceable method, the functions of only 50% or fewer of genes can be predicted when a novel genome is decoded. A prediction method independent of the homology search is urgently needed. By analyzing oligonucleotide compositions in genomic sequences, we previously developed a modified Self-Organizing Map ‘BLSOM’ that clustered genomic fragments according to phylotype with no advance knowledge of phylotype. Using BLSOM for di-, tri- and tetrapeptide compositions, we developed a system to enable separation (self-organization) of proteins by function. Analyzing oligopeptide frequencies in proteins previously classified into COGs (clusters of orthologous groups of proteins), BLSOMs could faithfully reproduce the COG classifications. This indicated that proteins, whose functions are unknown because of lack of significant sequence similarity with function-known proteins, can be related to function-known proteins based on similarity in oligopeptide composition. BLSOM was applied to predict functions of vast quantities of proteins derived from mixed genomes in environmental samples
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