Time delay as a key to Apoptosis Induction in the p53 Network

A feedback mechanism that involves the proteins p53 and mdm2, induces cell death as a controled response to severe DNA damage. A minimal model for this mechanism demonstrates that the respone may be dynamic and connected with the time needed to translate the mdm2 protein. The response takes place if the dissociation constant k between p53 and mdm2 varies from its normal value. Although it is widely believed that it is an increase in k that triggers the response, we show that the experimental behaviour is better described by a decrease in the dissociation constant. The response is quite robust upon changes in the parameters of the system, as required by any control mechanism, except for few weak points, which could be connected with the onset of cancer

Social Assistance Programs and Outcomes: Food Assistance in the Context of Welfare Reform

Food assistance programs play an important role in meeting the basic needs of low-income households. We consider the complex interactions among food stamps, labor force participation, and food insecurity status of low-income households under different program designs and economic conditions. The analysis uses data from the Survey of Program Dynamics to jointly estimate the role of participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), labor market participation and well-being, measured as food security, through the use of a simultaneous equation model. The results of our research suggest that food insecurity has a positive effect on FSP participation while labor force participation reduces FSP participation. Furthermore, FSP participation is more responsive to changes in the program benefits than to changes in nonlabor income. The linkages among food program participation, labor force participation, and well-being, measured in terms of food insecurity, are complex. The structural approach provides evidence that, among low-income households, program parameters affect FSP participation but no evidence that the food assistance reduces food insecurity.

Bursts and Shocks in a Continuum Shell Model

We study a "burst" event, i. e. the evolution of an initial condition having support only in a finite interval of k-space, in the continuum shell model due to Parisi. We show that the continuum equation without forcing or dissipation can be explicitly written in characteristic form and that the right and left moving parts can be solved exactly. When this is supplemented by the appropriate shock condition it is possible to find the asymptotic form of the burst.Comment: 15 pages, 2 eps figures included, Latex 2e. Contribution to the proceedings of the conference: Disorder and Chaos, in honour of Giovanni Paladin, September 22-24, 1997, in Rom

Universality classes and crossover behaviors in non-Abelian directed sandpiles

We study universality classes and crossover behaviors in non-Abelian directed sandpile models, in terms of the metastable pattern analysis. The non-Abelian property induces spatially correlated metastable patterns, characterized by the algebraic decay of the grain density along the propagation direction of an avalanche. Crossover scaling behaviors are observed in the grain density due to the interplay between the toppling randomness and the parity of the threshold value. In the presence of such crossovers, we show that the broadness of the grain distribution plays a crucial role in resolving the ambiguity of the universality class. Finally, we claim that the metastable pattern analysis is important as much as the conventional analysis of avalanche dynamics.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; published in PRE as the full paper of PRL v101, 218001 (2008

Two-dimensional order in β-sheet peptide monolayers

Amphiphilic peptides comprising alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acid residues were designed to form super-secondary structures composed of self-assembled β-strands as monolayers at the air−water interface. Insights provided by in situ grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), surface pressure vs area isotherms, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy allow structural characterization of the assembled nanostructures and rational correlation with the peptide sequence. Peptides seven to seventeen amino acids in length were found to form crystalline arrays with coherence lengths in the range of 100 to 1000 Å. Two-dimensional registry of the self-assembled peptides was induced by placement of proline residues at the peptide termini. The films were found to intercalate ordered arrays of ions between juxtaposed β-sheet ribbons to generate peptide−ion composite phases

Fear and its implications for stock markets

The value of stocks, indices and other assets, are examples of stochastic processes with unpredictable dynamics. In this paper, we discuss asymmetries in short term price movements that can not be associated with a long term positive trend. These empirical asymmetries predict that stock index drops are more common on a relatively short time scale than the corresponding raises. We present several empirical examples of such asymmetries. Furthermore, a simple model featuring occasional short periods of synchronized dropping prices for all stocks constituting the index is introduced with the aim of explaining these facts. The collective negative price movements are imagined triggered by external factors in our society, as well as internal to the economy, that create fear of the future among investors. This is parameterized by a ``fear factor'' defining the frequency of synchronized events. It is demonstrated that such a simple fear factor model can reproduce several empirical facts concerning index asymmetries. It is also pointed out that in its simplest form, the model has certain shortcomings.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to the Proceedings of Applications of Physics in Financial Analysis 5, Turin 200

Critical behavior of a one-dimensional monomer-dimer reaction model with lateral interactions

A monomer-dimer reaction lattice model with lateral repulsion among the same species is studied using a mean-field analysis and Monte Carlo simulations. For weak repulsions, the model exhibits a first-order irreversible phase transition between two absorbing states saturated by each different species. Increasing the repulsion, a reactive stationary state appears in addition to the saturated states. The irreversible phase transitions from the reactive phase to any of the saturated states are continuous and belong to the directed percolation universality class. However, a different critical behavior is found at the point where the directed percolation phase boundaries meet. The values of the critical exponents calculated at the bicritical point are in good agreement with the exponents corresponding to the parity-conserving universality class. Since the adsorption-reaction processes does not lead to a non-trivial local parity-conserving dynamics, this result confirms that the twofold symmetry between absorbing states plays a relevant role in determining the universality class. The value of the exponent $\delta_2$, which characterizes the fluctuations of an interface at the bicritical point, supports the Bassler-Brown's conjecture which states that this is a new exponent in the parity-conserving universality class.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev

Low-density series expansions for directed percolation II: The square lattice with a wall

A new algorithm for the derivation of low-density expansions has been used to greatly extend the series for moments of the pair-connectedness on the directed square lattice near an impenetrable wall. Analysis of the series yields very accurate estimates for the critical point and exponents. In particular, the estimate for the exponent characterizing the average cluster length near the wall, $\tau_1=1.00014(2)$, appears to exclude the conjecture $\tau_1=1$. The critical point and the exponents $\nu_{\parallel}$ and $\nu_{\perp}$ have the same values as for the bulk problem.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

1/z-renormalization of the mean-field behavior of the dipole-coupled singlet-singlet system HoF_3

The two main characteristics of the holmium ions in HoF_3 are that their local electronic properties are dominated by two singlet states lying well below the remaining 4f-levels, and that the classical dipole-coupling is an order of magnitude larger than any other two-ion interactions between the Ho-moments. This combination makes the system particularly suitable for testing refinements of the mean-field theory. There are four Ho-ions per unit cell and the hyperfine coupled electronic and nuclear moments on the Ho-ions order in a ferrimagnetic structure at T_C=0.53 K. The corrections to the mean-field behavior of holmium triflouride, both in the paramagnetic and ferrimagnetic phase, have been calculated to first order in the high-density 1/z-expansion. The effective medium theory, which includes the effects of the single-site fluctuations, leads to a substantially improved description of the magnetic properties of HoF_3, in comparison with that based on the mean-field approximation.Comment: 26pp, plain-TeX, JJ