Illuminating Molecular Processes in Living Cells

Lately, scientists have explored approaches to developing fluorescent and/or bioluminescent indicators to pinpoint cellular processes in single living cells. These analytical methods have become a key technology for visualizing and detecting what was otherwise unseen in live cells. The target signaling included second messengers, protein phosphorylations, protein–protein interactions, and protein localizations.     

Complex genetic evolution of artificial self‐replicators in cellular automata

It is widely believed that evolutionary dynamics of artificial self‐replicators realized in cellular automata (CA) are limited in diversity and adaptation. Contrary to this view, we show that complex genetic evolution may occur within simple CA. The evolving self‐replicating loops (“evoloops”) we investigate exhibit significant diversity in macro‐scale morphologies and mutational biases, undergoing nontrivial genetic adaptation by maximizing colony density and enhancing sustainability against other species. Nonmutable subsequences enable genetic operations that alter fitness differentials and promote long‐term evolutionary exploration. These results demonstrate a unique example of genetic evolution hierarchically emerging from local interactions between elements much smaller than individual replicators. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 10: 33–39, 2004     

A transport model for the evolution of urban systems

When comparing an urban system to an elasto-plastic lattice, an analogy to the solid state of matter can be exploited using the concepts of the band theory similarly. Thereafter, the population dynamics – in a region of certain stability in the state space and within appropriate energy bands – can be described in terms of Cellular Automata, with two mobile agents or pseudo particles: the inhabitant (representative of an average individual) and the recurson (representative of its multidimensional resources). As in the solid state, transition rules take the form of two coupled transport equations, comprising the terms equivalent to the generation-recombination and circulation processes. The first process can be compared to a predator–prey growth model, typical of Ecology; whereas the circulation process – composed of a drift component and a diffusion component – should be compared to the concentration-sprawl demographic balance seen in urban occupation and dynamics. Thus, it needs to be defined and determined an urban potential function, an equivalent population charge, mobility and diffusion parameters, as well as net growth factors. This analogy, discussed within the context of a case study for Great Mendoza, plausibly explains the varied growth rates of the political departments, as well as the principal urban trends for spatial occupation.     

Experimental verification of drop/impact simulation for a cellular phone

Conducting drop tests to investigate impact behavior and identify failure mechanisms of small-size electronic products is generally expensive and time-consuming. Nevertheless, strict drop/impact performance criteria for hand-held electronic products such as cellular phones play a decisive role in the design because they must withstand unexpected shocks. The design of product durability on impact has heavily relied on the designer's intuition and experience. In this study, a reliable drop/impact simulation for a cellular phone is carried out using the explicit code LS-DYNA. Subsequently globallocal experimental verification is accomplished by means of high-speed photography and impact response measurement. Using this methodology, we predict potential damage locations in a cellular phone and compare them with real statistical data. It is envisaged that development of a reliable methodology of drop/impact simulation will provide us with a powerful and efficient vehicle for improvement of the design quality and reduction of the product development cycle.     

Finite turns and the regular closure of linear context-free languages

Turn bounded pushdown automata with different conditions for beginning a new turn are investigated. Their relationships with closures of the linear context-free languages under regular operations are studied. For example, automata with an unbounded number of turns that have to empty their pushdown store up to the initial symbol in order to start a new turn are characterized by the regular closure of the linear languages. Automata that additionally have to re-enter the initial state are (almost) characterized by the Kleene star closure of the linear languages. For both a bounded and an unbounded number of turns, requiring to empty the pushdown store is a strictly stronger condition than requiring to re-enter the initial state. Several new language families are obtained which form a double-stranded hierarchy. Closure properties of these families under AFL operations are derived. The regular closure of the linear languages share the strong closure properties of the context-free languages, i.e., the family is a full AFL. Interestingly, three natural new language families are not closed under intersection with regular languages and inverse homomorphism. Finally, an algorithm is presented parsing languages from the new families in quadratic time.     

Statistical mechanics of probabilistic cellular automata

We investigate the behavior of discrete-time probabilistic cellular automata (PCA), which are Markov processes on spin configurations on ad-dimensional lattice, from a rigorous statistical mechanics point of view. In particular, we exploit, whenever possible, the correspondence between stationary measures on the space-time histories of PCAs on ^d and translation-invariant Gibbs states for a related Hamiltonian on ( ^d+1). This leads to a simple large-deviation formula for the space-time histories of the PCA and a proof that in a high-temperature regime the stationary states of the PCA are Gibbsian. We also obtain results about entropy, fluctuations, and correlation inequalities, and demonstrate uniqueness of the invariant state and exponential decay of correlations in a high-noise regime. We discuss phase transitions in the low-noise (or low-temperature) regime and review Toom's proof of nonergodicity of a certain class of PCAs.     

Metal foams: A survey

The current state-of-the-art in the development of cellular metal foams is reviewed, with focus on their fabrication, mechanical/thermal/acoustic properties, and potential applications as lightweight panels, energy absorbers, heat exchangers, and acoustic liners. Foam property charts with scaling relations are presented, allowing scoping and selection through the use of material indices.     

Selectivity optimization for the capillary gas chromatographic analysis of bacterial cellular fatty acids

Summary The importance of selectivity in the capillary gas chromatographic analysis of the cellular fatty acids of micro-organisms is underestimated. The analysis on apolar silicone phases can lead to erratic elucidation of the fatty acid structure. Qualitative errors have been detected in commercially available standards on which computer matching identification techniques are based. Using highly polar capillary columns of the cyanopropyl silicone type, the errors could be elucidated. The exact identification of the hydrolysis products of bacteria is a must for chemotaxonomic studies applying chromatographic techniques. The fatty acid methyl ester profiles can also contain other chemical components which are very important taxonomic markers. Fatty aldehydes, for example, are main components in someClostridium species. Fractionation techniques are described for selective enrichment of fatty aldehydes and hydroxy fatty acids.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. A Liberti on the occasion of his 70th birthday     

Algebraic spatial correlations in lattice gas automata violating detailed balance

In this paper we discuss the existence of generic long-range correlations in spatially homogeneous and stable equilibrium states of closed lattice gas automata whose stochastic collision rules violate the symmetry conditions of detailed balance and in addition satisfy local conservation laws. Such correlations occur even though the collision rules are strictly local and invariant under all symmetries of the lattice. First a phenomenological (Langevin equation) approach is discussed. Next we present a theoretical analysis on the basis of an approximate microscopic (ring kinetic) theory. This theory is used to calculate the amplitude ofr ^– tails in the spatial correlations, and the result is compared with computer simulations.     

Phase transitions and hysteresis in a cellular automata-based model of opinion formation

A particular case of a cellular automata-based model of two-state opinion formation in social groups with a strong leader is studied. We consider a 2D Euclidian geometry of social space and mutual interactions 1/r ⁿ . The model shows an interesting dynamics which can be analytically calculated. There are two stable states of the system: a cluster around the leader and unification. Unstable clusters may also appear. A variation in parameters such as the leader's strength or the social temperature can change the size of a cluster or, when they reach some critical values, make the system jump into another state. For a certain range of parameters the system exhibits bistability and hysteresis phenomena. We obtained explicit formulas for the cluster size, critical leader's strength, and critical social temperature. These analytical results are verified by computer simulations.