The competition between toroidal and rod-like conformations as possible ground states for DNA condensation is studied as a function of the stiffness, the length of the DNA, and the form of the long-range interactions between neighboring molecules, using analytical theory supported by Monte Carlo simulations. Both conformations considered are characterized by a local nematic order with hexagonal...

Previous studies have shown that cellular function depends on rod-like membrane proteins, among them Bin/Amphiphysin/Rvs (BAR) proteins may curve the membrane leading to physiologically important membrane invaginations and membrane protrusions. The membrane shaping induced by BAR proteins has a major role in various biological processes such as cell motility and cell growth. Different models of...

We report transient electric dichroism studies on monodisperse rod-like DNA molecules. By using restriction fragments and DNAs of known length, it is shown that the orientation time is accurately predicted by the theoretically calculated rotational diffusion coefficient. The field dependence of the steady-state dichroism values is not consistent with the induced electric dipole orientation mech...

Long slender structures such as textile yarns and ocean cables show localised buckling behaviour under torsional loading. In a 1D elastic theory these localised solutions are described by homoclinic orbits in a dynamical system in which arclength along the structure is the independent variable. Upon continued loading after localisation a snap into self-contact and looping may occur. We discuss ...

The rapid development of single molecule experimental techniques in the last two decades has made it possible to accurately measure the force-extension response as well as the transverse fluctuations of individual rod-like macromolecules. This information is used in conjunction with a statistical mechanical model based on the treatment of the molecule as a fluctuating elastic rod to extract its...

2014 A hexagonal packing of rod like structures is proposed in solutions and gels of a perfluorinated ionomer. The diameter of the rods has been obtained by two different approaches either geometrical from shifts of the interference peak versus concentrations in small angle scattering experiments or direct from analysis of the structure factor in diluted solutions. Consistent results give value...

Systematic studies on three dimensionally ordered liquid crystalline phases of different cubic and tetragonal symmetries are presented. The structures of the phases are determined by reconstruction of the electron density distribution from the X-ray diffraction patterns. The known models for electron densities in cubic structures were used whereas a new theoretical model for the structure of th...

A model of rod-like polyelectrolyte brushes in the presence of monovalent and multivalent counterions but with no added-salt is studied using Monte Carlo simulation. The average height of the brush, the histogram of rod conformations, and the counterion density profile are obtained for different values of the grafting density of the charge-neutral wall. For a domain of grafting densities, the b...

underlying visual processing in dim light is well conserved. Individual rod photoreceptors, themselves capable of reliably signaling the absorption of individual photons (6, 9), are pooled in a specialized circuitry referred to as the rod bipolar pathway (17, 49). Following a series of convergent connections in this pathway, the ganglion cells, which are the output cells of the retina, send sig...

Light-evoked excitatory cation current (DeltaIC) and inhibitory chloride current (DeltaICl) of rod and cone bipolar cells and AII amacrine cells (AIIACs) were recorded from slices of dark-adapted mouse retinas, and alpha ganglion cells were recorded from flatmounts of dark-adapted mouse retinas. The cell morphology was revealed by Lucifer yellow fluorescence with a confocal microscope. DeltaIC ...