The thalamic reticular (RE) nucleus plays a crucial role in regulating the excitability of thalamocortical networks and in generating some sleep rhythms. Current clamp intracellular recordings of RE neurons in cats under barbiturate anaesthesia revealed the presence of membrane bistability in ~20% of neurons. Bistability consisted of two alternate membrane potentials, separated by ~17-20 mV. Wh...

Quantum coherence is one of the most intriguing applications of quantum mechanics, and has led to interesting phenomena and uncommon results. Here we show that in a stark contrast to the usual red-detuned condition to observe bistability in single-mode optomechanics, the optical intensities exhibit bistability for all values of cavity-laser detuning due to intermode coupling induced by the two-...

Genetic toggle switches are widespread in gene regulatory networks (GRN). Bistability, namely the ability to choose among two different stable states, is an essential feature of switching and memory devices. Cells have many regulatory circuits able to provide bistability that endow a cell with efficient and reliable switching between different physiological modes of operation. It is often assum...

How alternative chromatin-based regulatory states can be made stable and heritable in order to provide robust epigenetic memory is poorly understood. Here, we develop a stochastic model of the silencing system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that incorporates cooperative binding of the repressive SIR complex and antisilencing histone modifications, in addition to positive feedback in Sir2 recruitme...

We solve the coupled mode equations governing the chalcogenide nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) numerically, and obtain the bistability characteristics. The characteristics of the chalcogenide nonlinear FBGs such as: switching threshold intensity, bistability interval and on-off switching ratio are studied. The effects of FBG length and its third order nonlinear refractive index on FBG cha...

Bistable structures associated with nonlinear deformation behavior, exemplified by the Venus flytrap and slap bracelet, can switch between different functional shapes upon actuation. Despite numerous efforts in modeling such large deformation behavior of shells, the roles of mechanical and nonlinear geometric effects on bistability remain elusive. We demonstrate, through both theoretical analys...

A developed two-dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method has been performed to investigate the optical bistability in a subwavelength metallic grating coated by nonlinear material. Different bistability loops have been shown to depend on parameters of the structure. The influences of two key parameters, thickness of nonlinear material and slit width of metallic grating, have been...

Bistability is a fundamental phenomenon in nature. In biology, a number of fine properties of bistability have been identified. However, these properties are only consequences of bistability at the physiological level, which do not explain why it had to emerge during evolution. Using optimal homeostasis as the first principle, I find that bistability emerges as an indispensable control mechanis...

Biochemical regulatory networks governing diverse cellular processes such as stress-response, differentiation and cell cycle often contain coupled feedback loops. We aim at understanding how features of feedback architecture, such as the number of loops, the sign of the loops and the type of their coupling, affect network dynamical performance. Specifically, we investigate how bistability range...