Kinetic barriers in RNA unzipping

We consider a simple model for the unfolding of RNA tertiary structure under dynamic loading. The opening of such a structure is regarded as a two step process, each corresponding to the overcoming of a single energy barrier. The resulting two-barrier energy landscape accounts for the dependence of the unfolding kinetics on the pulling rate. Furthermore at intermediate force, the two barriers cannot be distinguished by the analysis of the opening kinetic, which turns out to be dominated by a single macro-barrier, whose properties depend non-trivially on the two single barriers. Our results suggest that in pulling experiments on RNA molecule containing tertiary structures, the details of the single kinetic barriers can only be obtained using a low pulling rate value, or in the high force regime.Comment: to appear on Eur. Phys. J.

Book Reviews: Black Picket Fences, and Voices from Beneath the Veil

Reviews of the books Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class, by Mary Pattillo-McCoy, and Voices from Beneath the Veil: Analysis of the Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of Middle Class African Americans, by Michael E. Hodge

Romania for Beginners: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender

In this article, I discuss a faculty learning community abroad in Romania. Key topics include cross cultural comparisons of race, gender, and medical care

Review of After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn by Laurel Richardson

This a review of Richardson, Laurel. 2013. After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. ISBN: 978-1-61132-317-7, paperback, 268 pages. The book is an example of an autoethnography, detailing Richardson\u27s stay in a nursing home

Introduction to the Special Issue of The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology: Teaching Sociology in Challenging Times

Introduction by Editor In Chief Even under ideal conditions, teaching sociology can be challenging; however, recent attacks on academic freedom involving core sociological tenets have brought a sense of urgency to the discipline..

Memory effects in microscopic traffic models and wide scattering in flow-density data

By means of microscopic simulations we show that non-instantaneous adaptation of the driving behaviour to the traffic situation together with the conventional measurement method of flow-density data can explain the observed inverse-$\lambda$ shape and the wide scattering of flow-density data in ``synchronized'' congested traffic. We model a memory effect in the response of drivers to the traffic situation for a wide class of car-following models by introducing a new dynamical variable describing the adaptation of drivers to the surrounding traffic situation during the past few minutes (``subjective level of service'') and couple this internal state to parameters of the underlying model that are related to the driving style. % For illustration, we use the intelligent-driver model (IDM) as underlying model, characterize the level of service solely by the velocity and couple the internal variable to the IDM parameter ``netto time gap'', modelling an increase of the time gap in congested traffic (``frustration effect''), that is supported by single-vehicle data. % We simulate open systems with a bottleneck and obtain flow-density data by implementing ``virtual detectors''. Both the shape, relative size and apparent ``stochasticity'' of the region of the scattered data points agree nearly quantitatively with empirical data. Wide scattering is even observed for identical vehicles, although the proposed model is a time-continuous, deterministic, single-lane car-following model with a unique fundamental diagram.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to Physical Review

Designing and Adapting Service-based Systems: A Service Discovery Framework

This chapter describes a service discovery framework that has been developed within the EU 6th Framework projects SeCSE and Gredia. The framework supports design of service-based systems based on existing services and adaptation of service based systems during their execution due to different situations. It assumes services described from different perspectives and uses complex service discovery queries specified in a XML-based language that we have developed. The work is illustrated with the Cell Phone Operator case study

Letter from the Editors

A letter from the editors, welcoming readers to the special issue on Faculty Development Abroad

Introduction to the Special Issue

Introduction to the issue