0000000001084903
AUTHOR
H. Michael Ellerby
Configurational entropy of microemulsions : The fundamental length scale
Phenomenological models have been quite successful in characterizing both the various complex phases and the corresponding phase diagrams of microemulsions. In some approaches, e.g., the random mixing model (RMM), the lattice parameter is of the order of the dimension of an oil or water domain and has been used as a length scale for computing a configurational entropy, the so‐called entropy of mixing, of the microemulsion. In the central and material section of this paper (Sec. III), we show that the fundamental length scale for the calculation of the entropy of mixing is of the order of the cube root of the volume per molecule—orders of magnitude smaller than the dimension of such a domain…
Coupling Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress to the Cell Death Program
Accumulation of misfolded proteins and alterations in Ca2+ homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) causes ER stress and leads to cell death. However, the signal-transducing events that connect ER stress to cell death pathways are incompletely understood. To discern the pathway by which ER stress-induced cell death proceeds, we performed studies on Apaf-1−/− (null) fibroblasts that are known to be relatively resistant to apoptotic insults that induce the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. While these cells were resistant to cell death initiated by proapoptotic stimuli such as tamoxifen, they were susceptible to apoptosis induced by thapsigargin and brefeldin-A, both of which induce ER stress…