Descripción: Molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out to investigate the structure and dynamics of liquid methanol confined in 3.3 nm diameter cylindrical silica pores. Three cavities differing in the characteristics of the functional groups at their walls have been examined: (i) smooth hydrophobic pores in which dispersive forces prevail, (ii) hydrophilic cavities with surfaces covered by polar silanol groups, and (iii) a much more rugged pore in which 60% of the previous interfacial hydroxyl groups were replaced by the bulkier trimethylsilyl ones. Confinement promotes a considerable structure at the vicinity of the pore walls which is enhanced in the case of hydroxylated surfaces. Moreover, in the presence of the trimethylsilyl groups, the propagation of this interface-induced spatial ordering extends down to the central region of the pore. Concerning the dynamical modes, we observed an overall slowdown in both the translational and rotational motions. An analysis of these mobilities from a local perspective shows that the largest retardations operate at the vicinity of the interfaces. The gross features of the rotational dynamics were analyzed in terms of contributions arising from bulk and surface states. Compared to the bulk dynamical behavior, the characteristic timescales associated with the rotational motions show the most dramatic increments. A dynamical analysis of hydrogen bond formation and breaking processes is also included. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: In this work, we have study the EEG signals of birds during the first 6 weeks of life. The aim of the article is to perform a quantitative analysis of the dynamical changes observed in these signals due to the brain maturation effects. The signals' long scaling behaviour is study by Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA). This method allows the multifractal characterization of these EEG nonstationary time series and characterize the different stage of bird brain maturation. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: Unitary transformations can allow one to study open quantum systems in situations for which standard, weak-coupling type approximations are not valid. We develop here an extension of the variational (polaron) transformation approach to open system dynamics, which applies to arbitrarily large exciton transport networks with local environments. After deriving a time-local master equation in the transformed frame, we go on to compare the population dynamics predicted using our technique with other established master equations. The variational frame dynamics are found to agree with both weak coupling and full polaron master equations in their respective regions of validity. In parameter regimes considered difficult for these methods, the dynamics predicted by our technique are found to interpolate between the two. The variational method thus gives insight, across a broad range of parameters, into the competition between coherent and incoherent processes in determining the dynamical behaviour of energy transfer networks. © IOP Publishing and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.

Descripción: The dynamics of open balloons in an atmosphere may be studied with a body-fluid coupled model. A numerical approach is required to solve the corresponding equation set. Solutions under different conditions are obtained here for the vertical and one horizontal direction. Relevant dynamical features during ascent, flotation, and descent depend on balloon thermodynamics, wind, air small-scale turbulence, and perturbations to the background atmosphere. After analysis of the results it is found that approximate analytical solutions may be found in certain cases. The effect of nonlinear drag on balloon oscillation period and damping near flotation is evaluated. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: In this paper we propose a method, based on the Gabor transform, to quantify and visualize the time evolution of the traditional frequency bands defined in the analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) series. The information obtained in this way can be used for the information transfer analyses of the epileptic seizure as well as for their characterization. We found an optimal correlation between EEG visual inspection and the proposed method in the characterization of paroxism, spikes, and other transient alterations of background activity. The dynamical changes during an epileptic seizure are shown through the phase portrait. The method proposed was examplified with EEG series obtained with depth electrodes in refractory epileptic patients. © 1995 The American Physical Society.

Descripción: The processing of information by the brain is reflected in dynamical changes of the electrical activity in time, frequency, and space. Therefore, the concomitant studies require methods capable of describing the quantitative variation of the signal in both time and frequency. Here we present a quantitative EEC (qEEG) analysis, based on the Orthogonal Discrete Wavelet Transform (ODWT), of generalized epileptic tonic-clonic EEG signals. Two quantifiers: the Relative Wavelet Energy (RWE) and the Normalized Total Wavelet Entmpy (NTWS) have been used. The RWE gives information about the relative energy associated with the different frequency bands present in the EEO and their corresponding degree of importance. The NTWS is a measure of the order/disorder degree in the EEG signal. These two quantifiers were computing in EEG signals as provided by scalp electrodes of epileptic patients. We showed that the epileptic recruitment rhythm observed for generalized epileptic tonic-clonic seizures is accurately described by the RWE quantifier. In addition, a significant decrease in the NTWS was observed in the recruitment epoch, indicating a more rhythmic and ordered behavior in the brain electrical activity.

Descripción: We investigate the performance of one stretched-grid atmospheric global model, five different regional climate models and a statistical downscaling technique in simulating 3 months (January 1971, November 1986, July 1996) characterized by anomalous climate conditions in the southern La Plata Basin. Models were driven by reanalysis (ERA-40). The analysis has emphasized on the simulation of the precipitation over land and has provided a quantification of the biases of and scatter between the different regional simulations. Most but not all dynamical models underpredict precipitation amounts in south eastern South America during the three periods. Results suggest that models have regime dependence, performing better for some conditions than others. The models' ensemble and the statistical technique succeed in reproducing the overall observed frequency of daily precipitation for all periods. But most models tend to underestimate the frequency of dry days and overestimate the amount of light rainfall days. The number of events with strong or heavy precipitation tends to be under simulated by the models. © The Author(s) 2009.

Descripción: Context. Magnetic clouds (MCs) are formed by magnetic flux ropes that are ejected from the Sun as coronal mass ejections. These structures generally have low plasma beta and travel through the interplanetary medium interacting with the surrounding solar wind. Thus, the dynamical evolution of the internal magnetic structure of a MC is a consequence of both the conditions of its environment and of its own dynamical laws, which are mainly dominated by magnetic forces.Aims. With in-situ observations the magnetic field is only measured along the trajectory of the spacecraft across the MC. Therefore, a magnetic model is needed to reconstruct the magnetic configuration of the encountered MC. The main aim of the present work is to extend the widely used cylindrical model to arbitrary cross-section shapes.Methods. The flux rope boundary is parametrized to account for a broad range of shapes. Then, the internal structure of the flux rope is computed by expressing the magnetic field as a series of modes of a linear force-free field.Results. We analyze the magnetic field profile along straight cuts through the flux rope, in order to simulate the spacecraft crossing through a MC. We find that the magnetic field orientation is only weakly affected by the shape of the MC boundary. Therefore, the MC axis can approximately be found by the typical methods previously used (e.g., minimum variance). The boundary shape affects the magnetic field strength most. The measurement of how much the field strength peaks along the crossing provides an estimation of the aspect ratio of the flux-rope cross-section. The asymmetry of the field strength between the front and the back of the MC, after correcting for the time evolution (i.e., its aging during the observation of the MC), provides an estimation of the cross-section global bending. A flat or/and bent cross-section requires a large anisotropy of the total pressure imposed at the MC boundary by the surrounding medium.Conclusions. The new theoretical model developed here relaxes the cylindrical symmetry hypothesis. It is designed to estimate the cross-section shape of the flux rope using the in-situ data of one spacecraft. This allows a more accurate determination of the global quantities, such as magnetic fluxes and helicity. These quantities are especially important for both linking an observed MC to its solar source and for understanding the corresponding evolution. © 2009 ESO.

Descripción: Background: Detailed analysis of the dynamic interactions among biological, environmental, social, and economic factors that favour the spread of certain diseases is extremely useful for designing effective control strategies. Diseases like tuberculosis that kills somebody every 15 seconds in the world, require methods that take into account the disease dynamics to design truly efficient control and surveillance strategies. The usual and well established statistical approaches provide insights into the cause-effect relationships that favour disease transmission but they only estimate risk areas, spatial or temporal trends. Here we introduce a novel approach that allows figuring out the dynamical behaviour of the disease spreading. This information can subsequently be used to validate mathematical models of the dissemination process from which the underlying mechanisms that are responsible for this spreading could be inferred. Methodology/Principal Findings: The method presented here is based on the analysis of the spread of tuberculosis in a Brazilian endemic city during five consecutive years. The detailed analysis of the spatio-temporal correlation of the yearly geo-referenced data, using different characteristic times of the disease evolution, allowed us to trace the temporal path of the aetiological agent, to locate the sources of infection, and to characterize the dynamics of disease spreading. Consequently, the method also allowed for the identification of socio-economic factors that influence the process. Conclusions/Significance: The information obtained can contribute to more effective budget allocation, drug distribution and recruitment of human skilled resources, as well as guiding the design of vaccination programs. We propose that this novel strategy can also be applied to the evaluation of other diseases as well as other social processes. © 2010 Zorzenon dos Santos et al.

Descripción: We extend our previous molecular dynamics experiments [Rodriguez, J. Phys. Chem. B 109, 24427 (2005)] to the analysis of the adsorption of catanionic surfactants at water/air interfaces, at a surfactant coverage close to that of the saturated monolayer: 30.3 Å2 per headgroup. The mixture of surfactants investigated corresponds to equal amounts of dodecytrimethylammonium (DTA) and dodecylsulfate (DS). The structure of the interface is analyzed in terms of the local densities and orientational correlations of all relevant interfacial species. In accordance with experimental evidence, the DTA headgroups penetrate deeper into the aqueous substrate than the DS ones, although the average positions of all headgroups, with respect to the interface, lie in positions somewhat more external than the ones observed at lower coverages. Average tail tilts are close to 45°. The characteristics of the headgroup-water substrate correlations are also analyzed using a tessellation procedure of the interface. The density and polarization responses of the interfacial domains closest to the DS headgroups are enhanced, compared to those adjacent to the DTA detergents. Dynamical aspects related to the diffusion and to the orientational correlations of different water layers in close contact with the surfactant are also investigated. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: Spectral analyses performed on records of cosmogenic nuclides reveal a group of dominant spectral components during the Holocene period. Only a few of them are related to known solar cycles, i.e., the De Vries/Suess, Gleissberg and Hallstatt cycles. The origin of the others remains uncertain. On the other hand, time series of North Atlantic atmospheric/sea surface temperatures during the last ice age display the existence of repeated large-scale warming events, called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, spaced around multiples of 1470 years. The De Vries/Suess and Gleissberg cycles with periods close to 1470/7 (∼210) and 1470/17 (∼86.5) years have been proposed to explain these observations. In this work we found that a conceptual bistable model forced with the De Vries/Suess and Gleissberg cycles plus noise displays a group of dominant frequencies similar to those obtained in the Fourier spectra from paleo-climate during the Holocene. Moreover, we show that simply changing the noise amplitude in the model we obtain similar power spectra to those corresponding to GISP2 δ18O (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) during the last ice age. These results give a general dynamical framework which allows us to interpret the main characteristic of paleoclimate records from the last 100 000 years. © 2010 Author(s).

Descripción: It is universally true in ecological communities, terrestrial or aquatic, temperate or tropical, that some species are very abundant, others are moderately common, and the majority are rare. Likewise, eukaryotic genomes also contain classes or "species" of genetic elements that vary greatly in abundance: DNA transposons, retrotransposons, satellite sequences, simple repeats and their less abundant functional sequences such as RNA or genes. Are the patterns of relative species abundance and diversity similar among ecological communities and genomes? Previous dynamical models of genomic diversity have focused on the selective forces shaping the abundance and diversity of transposable elements (TEs). However, ideally, models of genome dynamics should consider not only TEs, but also the diversity of all genetic classes or "species" populating eukaryotic genomes. Here, in an analysis of the diversity and abundance of genetic elements in >500 eukaryotic chromosomes, we show that the patterns are consistent with a neutral hypothesis of genome assembly in virtually all chromosomes tested. The distributions of relative abundance of genetic elements are quite precisely predicted by the dynamics of an ecological model for which the principle of functional equivalence is the main assumption. We hypothesize that at large temporal scales an overarching neutral or nearly neutral process governs the evolution of abundance and diversity of genetic elements in eukaryotic genomes. © 2013 Serra et al.

Descripción: In the slugs and snails odor input signal, partly processed by the tentacle ganglion, propagates through the tentacle nerve (TN) to the cerebral ganglion, initially activating the meso-meta-region and finally the procerebral region (PC). The PC, equivalent to mammalian olfactory bulb, exerts slow spontaneous neuroelectrical oscillation, which changes its frequency and amplitude pattern responding to stimulus input. This has been related to a mechanism of signal processing for odor encoding. Three neuronal substructures, the cell mass (CM), the terminal mass (TM) and internal mass (IM) form the PC. Records from IM and CM have extensively been studied, but those from TM have scarcely been investigated. In the present study we aimed to clarify network dynamics among these cell ensembles with particular interest in the property of TM. Methods: We isolated the cerebral ganglia from the slug Incilaria together with TNs. We applied to TN electrical stimulation of weak to strong intensities (0.1 - 1.0 μA) and recorded activities at the three loci of PC by glass suction electrodes at a sampling rate of 200 Hz. The data were stored on hard drive and later off-line analysed by wavelet tools. Results: Wavelet analysis revealed that the major power of the spontaneous oscillations laid below 1.6 Hz. Namely, in the Incilaria PC, mainly the frequency components < 1.6 Hz take part in the dynamical signal processing. The frequency components, that are time-dependently, interacting with each other, contribute together to altering total entropy of a cell mass at a given time. Notably, the 0.1 - 0.2 Hz component contributing most strongly to total energy attributes most to dropping entropy ("ordering of neuronal state"). Response to the weakest stimulus is most sensitively elicited as "desynchronization" in TM-IM, but that to the stronger stimuli, as "synchronization or frequency ordering" in TM-CM, and finally "synchronization" in TM-IM-CM (the whole PC). The fact that the entropy of TM in general remains lower than IM and CM regardless with stimulation suggests that the neurons of TM are in more ordered state than the other masses playing some governing function in the procerebral network. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Descripción: Context. Significant quantities of magnetized plasma are transported from the Sun to the interstellar medium via interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Magnetic clouds (MCs) are a particular subset of ICMEs, forming large-scale magnetic flux ropes. Their evolution in the solar wind is complex and mainly determined by their own magnetic forces and the interaction with the surrounding solar wind. Aims. Magnetic clouds are strongly affected by the surrounding environment as they evolve in the solar wind. We study expansion of MCs, its consequent decrease in magnetic field intensity and mass density, and the possible evolution of the so-called global ideal-MHD invariants. Methods. In this work we analyze the evolution of a particular MC (observed in March 1998) using in situ observations made by two spacecraft approximately aligned with the Sun, the first one at 1 AU from the Sun and the second one at 5.4 AU. We describe the magnetic configuration of the MC using different models and compute relevant global quantities (magnetic fluxes, helicity, and energy) at both heliodistances. We also tracked this structure back to the Sun, to find out its solar source. Results. We find that the flux rope is significantly distorted at 5.4 AU. From the observed decay of magnetic field and mass density, we quantify how anisotropic is the expansion and the consequent deformation of the flux rope in favor of a cross section with an aspect ratio at 5.4 AU of ≈ 1.6 (larger in the direction perpendicular to the radial direction from the Sun). We quantify the ideal-MHD invariants and magnetic energy at both locations, and find that invariants are almost conserved, while the magnetic energy decays as expected with the expansion rate found. Conclusions. The use of MHD invariants to link structures at the Sun and the interplanetary medium is supported by the results of this multi-spacecraft study. We also conclude that the local dimensionless expansion rate, which is computed from the velocity profile observed by a single-spacecraft, is very accurate for predicting the evolution of flux ropes in the solar wind. © 2011 ESO.