Synthetic biology may be viewed as an effort to establish, formalize, and develop an engineering discipline in the context of biological systems. The ability to tune the properties of individual components is central to the process of system design in all fields of engineering, and synthetic biology is no exception. A large and growing number of approaches have been developed for tuning the res...

Many real oscillators are coupled to other oscillators, and the coupling can affect the response of the oscillators to stimuli. We investigate phase-response curves (PRCs) of coupled oscillators. The PRCs for two weakly coupled phase-locked oscillators are analytically obtained in terms of the PRC for uncoupled oscillators and the coupling function of the system. Through simulation and analytic...

Many screening hits inhibit enzymes with steep dose-response curves, which are considered pathological. Three models might explain these curves: multisite binding, an inhibitor phase transition, or stoichiometric inhibition caused by a high enzyme to Kd ratio. Experiments with promiscuous aggregators, for which steep curves are common, suggest that these curves owe to stoichiometric inhibition,...

this work is a primary achievement in studying the co2 and n2–oil systems. to predict gas-liquid relative permeability curves, a shan-chen type multicomponent multiphase lattice boltzmann model for two-phase flow through 2d porous media is developed. periodic and bounce back boundary conditions are applied to the model with the guo scheme for the external body force (i.e., the pressure gradient...

We review the principal assumptions underlying the application of phase-response curves (PRCs) to synchronization in neuronal networks. The PRC measures how much a given synaptic input perturbs spike timing in a neural oscillator. Among other applications, PRCs make explicit predictions about whether a given network of interconnected neurons will synchronize, as is often observed in cortical st...

We will consider dichotomous responses to a set of test items which are designed to measure the abilities of individuals. We assume that each item is characterized by an item response curve, a function of ability which is indexed by unknown parameters called item parameters. We consider a Bayesian method for estimating these parameters when the abilities of the individuals are assumed to have a...

To the Editor:—The critique by Eger et al. on the article by Eckenhoff and Johansson concerns combining the dose–response curves of several ion channels to make them steeper. The slopes of the in vivo studies are steep, whereas those of the in vitro studies are gradual. Both groups anticipate that when several binding sites among ion channels are combined, the dose–response curves may become st...

Fragility curves are very useful in quantifying the physical and economic damage of buildings that have undergone an earthquake. This paper presents the development of analytical fragility curves representative of mid-rise residential structures built with reinforced concrete, taking into account the specific structural characteristics of Algerian buildings. The derivation of the analytical fra...

Fragility curves represent the probabilities that structural damages, under various levels of seismic excitation, will exceed the specified damage states by means of earthquake intensity damage relations. Conceptual aspects related to seismic vulnerability, damage and risk evaluation are discussed first, together with a short review of the most widely used possibilities for the seismic evaluati...