Avian magnetoreception model realized by coupling a magnetite-based mechanism with a radical-pair-based mechanism

Many animal species have been proven to use the geomagnetic field for their navigation, but the biophysical mechanism of magnetoreception has remained enigmatic. In this paper, we present a special biophysical model that consists of magnetite-based and radical-pair-based mechanisms for avian magnetoreception. The amplitude of the resultant magnetic field around the magnetic particles corresponds to the geomagnetic field direction and affects the yield of singlet/triplet state products in the radical-pair reactions. Therefore, in the proposed model, the singlet/triplet state product yields are related to the geomagnetic field information for orientational detection. The resultant magnetic fields corresponding to two materials with different magnetic properties are analyzed under different geomagnetic field directions. The results show that ferromagnetic particles in organisms can provide more significant changes in singlet state products than superparam- agnetic particles, and the period of variation for the singlet state products with an included angle in the geomagnetic field is approximately 180 when the magnetic particles are ferromagnetic materials, consistent with the experimental results obtained from the avian magnetic compass. Further, the calculated results of the singlet state products in a reception plane show that the proposed model can explain the avian magnetoreception mechanism with an inclination compass.     

Propagation of kink–antikink pair along microtubules as a control mechanism for polymerization and depolymerization processes

Among many types of proteinaceous filaments, microtubules(MTs) constitute the most rigid components of the cellular cytoskeleton. Microtubule dynamics is essential for many vital cellular processes such as intracellular transport,metabolism, and cell division. We investigate the nonlinear dynamics of inhomogeneous microtubulin systems and the MT dynamics is found to be governed by a perturbed sine-Gordon equation. In the presence of various competing nonlinear inhomogeneities, it is shown that this nonlinear model can lead to the existence of kink and antikink solitons moving along MTs. We demonstrate kink–antikink pair collision in the framework of Hirota’s bilinearization method. We conjecture that the collisions of the quanta of energy propagating in the form of kinks and antikinks may offer a new view of the mechanism of the retrograde and anterograde transport direction regulation of motor proteins in microtubulin systems.     

Lepton-pair production in hadronic processes via a two-photon exchange mechanism

We give some details of the calculation of the cross-section for muon-pair production in hadron-hadron scattering via a two-photon exchange mechanism, together with numerical results. This two-photon process is found to become significant compared to the familiar single-photon (Drell-Yan) process at very high (e.g. ISABELLE) energies, although in certain restricted kinematic regions it has a measurable cross-section itself under currently attainable experimental conditions. Some suggestions as to how this process can be observed separately from the single-photon background in present and future experiments are also given.     

Nonlinear friction as a mechanism of directed motion

A simple model (ratchet model) of occurrence of directed motion under the action of a zero-mean fluctuating force is proposed. The motion arises when the symmetry in the velocity space is violated by nonlinear friction. The mechanism of the directed motion is discussed qualitatively. Existence conditions of the motion are derived. The efficiency of conversion of the fluctuating random force to the directed motion is estimated.     

Resonance internal conversion as a way of accelerating nuclear processes

A theory of resonance conversion (RC) is presented. It is shown that by resonance conversion being a natural extension of traditional internal conversion, into the subthreshold domain, in a number of cases, it strongly affects nuclear de-excitation. Moreover, as it concentrates transition strength in narrow bands corresponding to atomic spectral lines, it is a unique tool for accelerating nuclear processes. Along with the wellknown process of non-radiative nuclear excitation through electron NEET transition and the inverse RC process, resonance conversion provides convenient mathematics for a number of crossing-invariant processes involving a nucleus and electrons, excitation and de-excitation of nuclei, by a hyperfine magnetic field, spin mixing of nuclear states via an electron shell, a hyperfine interaction and magnetic anomalies in an atomic spectra, and the excitation of nuclei in collisions accompanied by the ionization of an electron shell, in muon decay in the orbit, etc. Mechanisms of isomer pumping via a laser-radiation-induced RC and of isomer energy triggering in a resonance laser radiation field are considered. An especially strong effect can be obtained in hydrogen-like ions, with practically no RC damping. The theory is also generalized to the case of discrete Auger transitions.     

Gamma-irradiated onions as a biological indicator of radiation dose.

Post-irradiation identification and dose estimation are required to assess the radiation-induced effects on living things in any nuclear emergency. In this study, radiation-induced morphological/cytological changes i.e., number of root formation and its length, shooting length, reduction in mitotic index, micronuclei formation and chromosomal aberrations in the root tip cells of gamma-irradiated onions at lower doses (50-2000 cGy) are reported. The capabilities of this biological species to store the radiation-induced information are also studied.     

Decoupling-coupling of rotations as a mechanism of glass transition

We introduce a three-dimensional lattice gas model to study the glass transition. In this model the interactions come from the excluded volume and particles have five arms with an asymmetrical shape, which results in geometric frustration that inhibits full packing. Each particle has two degrees of freedom, the position and the orientation of the particle. We find a second order phase transition at a density , this transition decouples the orientation of the particles which can rotate without interaction in this degree of freedom until is reached. Both the inverse diffusivity and the relaxation time follow a power law behavior for densities . The crystallization at is avoided because frustration lets to the system to reach higher densities, then the divergencies are overcome. For the orientations of the particles are coupled and the dynamics is governed by both degrees of freedom.Received: 20 October 2004, Published online: 23 December 2004PACS: 64.70.Pf Glass transitionsA. Díaz-Sánchez: Also at: Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Universitá di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte SantAngelo, Via Cintia, 80126 Napoli, Italy and INFM, Unitá di Napoli, Napoli, Italy     

Growth rate and shape as possible control mechanisms for the selection of mode development in optimal biological branching processes

Recently three branching modes were characterized during the formation of the lung in mice. These modes are highly stereotyped and correspond to domain formation, planar bifurcation and three dimensional branching respectively. At the same time it is proved that although genetic control mechanisms are presumably related to the selection of any of these modes, other external factors will most probably be involved in the branching process during development. In this paper we propose that the underlying controling factors might be related to the rate at which the tubes that form the lung network grow. We present a mathematical model that allows us to formulate specific experimental predictions on these growth rates. Moreover we show that according to this formulation, there is an optimization criterion which governs the branching process during lung development, namely, efficient local space filling properties of the network. If there is no space limitation the branches are allowed to grow freely and faster, selecting one branching mode, namely, domain formation. As soon as volume constraints appear the growth rate decreases, triggering the selection of planar and orthogonal bifurcation.     

Quantum tomography as a new approach to simulating quantum processes

A new method is proposed for ab initio calculations of nonstationary quantum processes on the basis of a probability representation of quantum mechanics with the help of a positive definite function (quantum tomogram). The essence of the method is that an ensemble of trajectories associated with the characteristics of the evolution equation for the quantum tomogram is considered in the space where the quantum tomogram is defined. The method is applied for detailed analysis of transient tunneling of a wave packet. The results are in good agreement with the exact numerical solution to the Schrödinger equation for this system. The probability density distributions are obtained in the coordinate and momentum spaces at consecutive instances. For transient tunneling of a wave packet, the probability of penetration behind the barrier and the time of tunneling are calculated as functions of the initial energy.     

On the electron tunneling as a mechanism of superconductivity

Assuming the presence of electron double-well potential in high-T_c oxide superconductors, we examine the low-lying electron excitations of the tunneling type as a mechanism of superconductivity.     

Aliovalent ionic substitution as a probe of conduction mechanism

Silver and sodium have qualitatively different diffraction-determined ionic distributions in the conduction planes of a β-alumina host. That this can imply different conduction mechanisms in the two cases is probed by partially exchanging Cd²⁺ ions into both compounds, and measuring the resulting mixed-ion distributions. The systems Ag_{1.22 − y}Cd_y/2Al₁₁O_17.11 (for y = 0, 0.10, 0.41 and 1.11) and Na_{1.22 − y}Cd_y/2Al₁₁O_17.11 for (y = 0, 0.22, 0.45 and 1.22) were investigated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The problematical use of diffraction techniques for highly disordered systems of this type is discussed; it is also shown how some of these difficulties can be reduced through access to additional physical and chemical information. Qualitatively different mechanisms are deduced in the two cases, suggesting that aliovalent substitution can indeed be a useful general tool in studying ionic conduction mechanisms in crystalline systems.     

Amplitude modulation sensitivity as a mechanism increment detection

Detectability of a tonal signal added to a tonal masker increases with increasing duration ("temporal integration"), up to some maximum duration. Initially assumed to be some form of energy integration over time, this phenomenon is now often described as the result of a statistical "multiple looks" process. For continuous maskers, listeners may also use a mechanism sensitive to changes in stimulus intensity, possibly a result of inherent sensitivity to amplitude modulation (AM). In order to examine this hypothesis, change detection was investigated in the presence of AM maskers presented at either the same carrier frequency as the target signal or at a distant frequency. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that listeners detect intensity increments by using change-detection mechanisms (modeled here as the outputs of a bank of modulation filters) sensitive to envelope modulation at both low (4-16 Hz) and high (around 100 Hz) rates. AM masking occurred even when the masker was at a carrier frequency more than two octaves above that of the signal to be detected. This finding is also compatible with the hypothesis that similar mechanisms underlie sensitivity to AM (where across-frequency masking is commonly shown) and detection of intensity increments.     

The pick-up mechanism in composite particle emission processes

The pick-up mechanism has been included in the exciton model for the light composite particle emissions. Based on the cluster phase space integration method the formation probabilities of α,d, t,³He are obtained. The calculation results of (n, t) cross sections indicate that this theoretical method can reproduce the experimental data nicely. For triton emissions in pre-equilibrium reaction processes, the semi-direct reactions are the dominant terms which are just omitted in the previous model calculation.     

Nonlinear wave processes in a deformable solid as a hierarchically organized system

Theoretical predictions and experiments demonstrate that solid state mechanics should consider, along with a structurally equilibrium 3D crystalline subsystem, a structurally nonequilibrium planar subsystem as a complex of all surface layers and internal interfaces with broken translation invariance. Primary plastic flow of a loaded solid develops in its structurally nonequilibrium planar subsystem as channeled nonlinear waves of local structural transformations that determine the self-organization law of multiscale plastic flow. These waves initiate mesoscale rotational deformation modes, giving rise to all types of microscale strain-induced defects in the planar subsystem. The strain-induced defects are emitted into the crystalline subsystem as an inhibitor of nonlinear waves of plastic flow in the planar subsystem. Plastic deformation of solids, whatever the loading type, evolves in the field of rotational couple forces. Loss of hierarchical self-consistency by rotational deformation modes culminates in fracture of material as an uncompensated rotational deformation mode on the macroscale.