Deformation and osmotic swelling of an elastic membrane capsule in Stokes flows by the immersed interface method

Although permeable and deformable capsules are found in many applications in biological and industrial systems, studies on computational modeling of these capsules are still rather lacking. In this work, the osmotic swelling of a deforming capsule immersed in a diluted binary solution of a non-electrolyte solute under Stokes flows is simulated using the immersed interface method (IIM). The approximate jump conditions for solute concentration are calculated with the use of the Kedem–Katchalsky relations. The capsule membrane is considered to be either semi-permeable or fully permeable, and the material of capsule membrane is assumed to be Neo-Hookean. The employed properties of fluid and membrane lie in the range of a typical biological system. The numerical validation tests indicate that the present calculation procedure has achieved good accuracy in modeling the swelling and deformation of permeable capsules. The capsule swelling (with mass transfer across the membrane) and deformation are tested for different solute concentration fields and membrane permeability properties. Our numerical investigations show that the initial solute concentration field and the membrane permeability properties have much influence on the swelling/deformation of a permeable capsule under Stokes flows.     

IC CAD中的图形运算算法与实现

熊猫系统是一个基于全定制ASIC,同时能完成半定制ASIC设计的完整的ICCAD系统。GOA(Geometric Operations and Analysis tool)是其中的完成图形算术、逻辑、拓扑运算的工具及软件库。本文将介绍它的作用及其与其它工具的关系,并详细介绍了其算法及我们在α测试和β测试中针对速度和精度要求所做的改进工作。     

Food properties that influence neuromuscular activity during human mastication

The rate of breakdown of food in mastication depends on the ratio of two mechanical properties of the food--the toughness and modulus of elasticity (Agrawal et al., 1997)--a result which can be predicted by an analysis of the energetics of fracture. The work input to produce food fragmentation is provided by the masticatory muscles, the activity levels of which depend on sensory feedback from the mouth. Here, we test the hypothesis that the activity of a representative of this musculature is modulated by the above combination of food properties. The surface electrical activity (EMG) of the anterior temporalis muscles of ten human subjects was recorded while subjects chewed standardized volumes of 15 food types. The integrated EMG in these muscles was highly significantly related to the square root of the ratio of the above two food properties. Significant correlations were found between this food property index and integrated EMG, both when data for all chews and all subjects were lumped together (r = -0.86; p < 0.0001) and when correlation coefficients between the index and EMG were plotted for each chew made by each subject. Except for two subjects in the first chew, these coefficients reached and maintained highly significant levels throughout the masticatory sequence. Thus, a clear relationship between the electrical activity of a jaw-closing muscle and the mechanical properties of food has been found for the first time.     

Micromechanical models for the Brownian motion of hair cell stereocilia

Brownian motion of the hairs (stereocilia) of amphibian hair cells has been shown in experiments to be in the range of some nm. Our models of the Brownian motion of coupled harmonic oscillators with mechanical properties of stereocilia lead to similar displacements. Computer simulation shows that stochastic fluctuations enhance the encoding of low level acoustic signals. Stochastic resonance lowers the detection threshold of auditory signals to amplitudes one order of magnitude lower than that of the Brownian motion.     

Paternal care enhances male reproductive success in pine engraver beetles

His117 of the D2 protein of photosystem II (PS II) is a conserved residue in the second transmembrane region of the protein and has been suggested to bind chlorophyll. Nine site-directed mutations were introduced at residue 117, using both photosystem I (PS I)-containing and PS I-less background strains of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Of these nine, four (H117C, H117M, H117N, and H117T) were photoautotrophic in the PS I-containing background. The other mutants (H117F, H117L, H117P, H117R, and H117Y) did not accumulate appreciable amounts of PS II in their thylakoids. The type of residues that can functionally replace His117 support the notion of His117 serving as a chlorophyll ligand. The properties of the H117N and H117T mutants were characterized in more detail. Whereas the properties of the H117N mutant were close to those of wild type, in the H117T mutant the 77-K fluorescence emission spectrum shows a much smaller amplitude at 695 nm than expected on the basis of the amount of PS II that is present. Moreover, in H117T, the amount of light needed to half-saturate O2-evolution rates was twofold higher than in the control strain, and the variable fluorescence yield was quenched. However, O2 evolution rates at saturating light intensity and electron-transport kinetics were normal in the mutant. Also, the radical accessory chlorophyll (Chlz+) formed by donation of an electron to the PS-II reaction center could be generated normally by illumination at low temperature in the H117T mutant. We conclude that the chlorophyll associated with residue 117 of the D2 protein is important for efficient excitation transfer between the proximal antenna and the PS II reaction center. A possible mechanism involving a chlorophyll cation to explain the quenching in the H117T mutant is discussed.     

Impact of Statistical Multiplexing on Voice Quality in Cellular Networks

This paper examines the quality of transmission of voice over cellular, packet-switched networks. The medium access mechanism in the uplink is simulated under various statistical multiplexing scenarios in order to assess the effect of front-end clipping on voice quality. Moreover, the simulation is implemented in a real-time demonstration platform utilized to acquire subjective indicators of voice quality by performing Mean Opinion Score (MOS) tests. Results from the MOS tests are reported, and an analysis of the obtained speech samples is presented. Finally, the results are summarized and potential further directions for the simulation tool and the speech models are discussed.