Search results for "MATTER"
showing 10 items of 16762 documents
Uhlmann number in translational invariant systems
2019
We define the Uhlmann number as an extension of the Chern number, and we use this quantity to describe the topology of 2D translational invariant Fermionic systems at finite temperature. We consider two paradigmatic systems and we study the changes in their topology through the Uhlmann number. Through the linear response theory we linked two geometrical quantities of the system, the mean Uhlmann curvature and the Uhlmann number, to directly measurable physical quantities, i.e. the dynamical susceptibility and to the dynamical conductivity, respectively.
A new twist on sea silk : the peculiar protein ultrastructure of fan shell and pearl oyster byssus
2018
11 pages; International audience; Numerous mussel species produce byssal threads - tough proteinaceous fibers, which anchor mussels in aquatic habitats. Byssal threads from Mytilus species, which are comprised of modified collagen proteins - have become a veritable archetype for bio-inspired polymers due to their self-healing properties. However, threads from different species are comparatively much less understood. In particular, the byssus of Pinna nobilis comprises thousands of fine fibers utilized by humans for millennia to fashion lightweight golden fabrics known as sea silk. P. nobilis is very different from Mytilus from an ecological, morphological and evolutionary point of view and …
Retrieving infinite numbers of patterns in a spin-glass model of immune networks
2013
The similarity between neural and immune networks has been known for decades, but so far we did not understand the mechanism that allows the immune system, unlike associative neural networks, to recall and execute a large number of memorized defense strategies {\em in parallel}. The explanation turns out to lie in the network topology. Neurons interact typically with a large number of other neurons, whereas interactions among lymphocytes in immune networks are very specific, and described by graphs with finite connectivity. In this paper we use replica techniques to solve a statistical mechanical immune network model with `coordinator branches' (T-cells) and `effector branches' (B-cells), a…
Ecological network analysis reveals the inter-connection between soil biodiversity and ecosystem function as affected by land use across Europe
2016
Soil organisms are considered drivers of soil ecosystem services (primary productivity, nutrient cycling, carbon cycling, water regulation) associated with sustainable agricultural production. Soil biodiversity was highlighted in the soil thematic strategy as a key component of soil quality. The lack of quantitative standardised data at a large scale has resulted in poor understanding of how soil biodiversity could be incorporated into legislation for the protection of soil quality. In 2011, the EcoFINDERS (FP7) project sampled 76 sites across 11 European countries, covering five biogeographical zones (Alpine, Atlantic, Boreal, Continental and Mediterranean) and three land-uses (arable, gra…
Gene-based and semantic structure of the Gene Ontology as a complex network
2012
The last decade has seen the advent and consolidation of ontology based tools for the identification and biological interpretation of classes of genes, such as the Gene Ontology. The information accumulated time-by-time and included in the GO is encoded in the definition of terms and in the setting up of semantic relations amongst terms. This approach might be usefully complemented by a bottom-up approach based on the knowledge of relationships amongst genes. To this end, we investigate the Gene Ontology from a complex network perspective. We consider the semantic network of terms naturally associated with the semantic relationships provided by the Gene Ontology consortium and a gene-based …
A deterministic model for highly contagious diseases: The case of varicella
2016
[EN] The classic nonlinear Kermack-McKendrick model based upon a system of differential equations has been widely applied to model the rise and fall of global pandemic and also seasonal epidemic by introducing a forced harmonic infectivity which would change throughout the year. These methods work well in their respective domains of applicability, and for certain diseases, but they fail when both seasonality and high infectivity are combined. In this paper we consider a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered, or SIR, model with two latent states to model the propagation and evolutionary history of varicella in humans. We show that infectivity can be calculated from real data and we find a nonstanda…
Competing species system as a qualitative model of radiation therapy
2016
To examine complex features of tumor dynamics we analyze a competing-species lattice model that takes into account the competition for nutrients or space as well as interaction with therapeutic factors such as drugs or radiation. Our model might be interpreted as a certain prey–predator system having three trophic layers: (i) the basal species that might be interpreted as nutrients; (ii) normal and tumor cells that consume nutrients, and (iii) therapeutic factors that might kill either nutrient, normal or tumor cells. Using a wide spectrum of parameters we examined survival of our species and tried to identify the corresponding dynamical regimes. It was found that the radiotherapy influence…
Characterizing microstructural tissue properties in multiple sclerosis with diffusion MRI at 7 T and 3 T: The impact of the experimental design
2019
The recent introduction of advanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques to characterize focal and global degeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS), like the Composite Hindered and Restricted Model of Diffusion, or CHARMED, diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) made available new tools to image axonal pathology non-invasively in vivo. These methods already showed greater sensitivity and specificity compared to conventional diffusion tensor-based metrics (e.g., fractional anisotropy), overcoming some of its limitations. While previous studies uncovered global and focal axonal degeneration in MS patients compared to healthy contr…
Fractional hereditariness of lipid membranes: Instabilities and linearized evolution
2016
In this work lipid ordering phase changes arising in planar membrane bilayers is investigated both accounting for elas- ticity alone and for effective viscoelastic response of such assemblies. The mechanical response of such membranes is studied by minimizing the Gibbs free energy which penalizes perturbations of the changes of areal stretch and their gradients only [1]. As material instabilities arise whenever areal stretches characterizing homogeneous configurations lie inside the spinoidal zone of the free energy density, bifurcations from such configurations are shown to occur as oscillatory perturbations of the in-plane displacement. Experimental observations [2] show a power-law in-pl…
Phase separations induced by a trapping potential in one-dimensional fermionic systems as a source of core-shell structures
2018
Ultracold fermionic gases in optical lattices give a great opportunity for creating different types of novel states. One of them is phase separation induced by a trapping potential between different types of superfluid phases. The core-shell structures, occurring in systems with a trapping potential, are a good example of such separations. The types and the sequences of phases which emerge in such structures can depend on spin-imbalance, shape of the trap and on-site interaction strength. In this work, we investigate the properties of such structures within an attractive Fermi gas loaded in the optical lattice, in the presence of the trapping potential and their relations to the phase diagr…