Spatial Organization of the Cytoskeleton enhances Cargo Delivery to Specific Target Areas on the Plasma Membrane of Spherical Cells

Intracellular transport is vital for the proper functioning and survival of a cell. Cargo (proteins, vesicles, organelles, etc.) is transferred from its place of creation to its target locations via molecular motor assisted transport along cytoskeletal filaments. The transport efficiency is strongly affected by the spatial organization of the cytoskeleton, which constitutes an inhomogeneous, complex network. In cells with a centrosome microtubules grow radially from the central microtubule organizing center towards the cell periphery whereas actin filaments form a dense meshwork, the actin cortex, underneath the cell membrane with a broad range of orientations. The emerging ballistic motion along filaments is frequently interrupted due to constricting intersection nodes or cycles of detachment and reattachment processes in the crowded cytoplasm. In order to investigate the efficiency of search strategies established by the cell's specific spatial organization of the cytoskeleton we formulate a random velocity model with intermittent arrest states. With extensive computer simulations we analyze the dependence of the mean first passage times for narrow escape problems on the structural characteristics of the cytoskeleton, the motor properties and the fraction of time spent in each state. We find that an inhomogeneous architecture with a small width of the actin cortex constitutes an efficient intracellular search strategy.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Crossovers in the Two Dimensional Ising Spin Glass with ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions

By means of extensive computer simulations we analyze in detail the two dimensional $\pm J$ Ising spin glass with ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions. We found a crossover from ferromagnetic to ``spin glass'' like order both from numerical simulations and analytical arguments. We also present evidences of a second crossover from the ``spin glass'' behavior to a paramagnetic phase for the largest volume studied.Comment: 19 pages with 9 postscript figures also available at http://chimera.roma1.infn.it/index_papers_complex.html. Some changes in captions of figures 1 and

Nonequilibrium Dynamics and Aging in the Three--Dimensional Ising Spin Glass Model

The low temperature dynamics of the three dimensional Ising spin glass in zero field with a discrete bond distribution is investigated via MC simulations. The thermoremanent magnetization is found to decay algebraically and the temperature dependent exponents agree very well with the experimentally determined values. The nonequilibrium autocorrelation function $C(t,t_w)$ shows a crossover at the waiting (or {\em aging}) time $t_w$ from algebraic {\em quasi-equilibrium} decay for times $t$$\ll$$t_w$ to another, faster algebraic decay for $t$$\gg$$t_w$ with an exponent similar to one for the remanent magnetization.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages + 4 figures (included as Latex-files

Untersuchungen zur agronomischen Vorzüglichkeit von Milchviehhaltungssystemen im Ökologischen Landbau

A comparison of farms with different milk yields, grazing intensities and concentrate feeding shows: cost efficient milk production is frequently achieved with below-average milk yields; on the other hand there were hardly any differences found be-tween grazing times during the summer and concentrate rates per cow during the year. However, strategies of individual farms could show advantages for less intensive and intensive farm management strategies

Off-Equilibrium Dynamics of a 4D Spin Glass with Asymmetric Couplings

We study the off-equilibrium dynamics of the Edwards-Anderson spin glass in four dimensions under the influence of a non-hamiltonian perturbation. We find that for small asymmetry the model behaves as the hamiltonian one, while for large asymmetry the behaviour of the model can be well described by an interrupted aging scenario. The autocorrelation function C(t_w+\tau,t_w) scales as \tau/t_w^\beta, with \beta a function of the asymmetry. For very long waiting times the previous regime crosses over to a time translational invariant regime (TTI) with stretched exponential relaxation. The model does not show signs of reaching a TTI regime for weak asymmetry, but in the aging regime the exponent \beta is always different from one, showing a non trivial aging scenario.Comment: Latex, 12 pages, 9 figure

Fluctuation Dissipation Ratio in Three-Dimensional Spin Glasses

We present an analysis of the data on aging in the three-dimensional Edwards Anderson spin glass model with nearest neighbor interactions, which is well suited for the comparison with a recently developed dynamical mean field theory. We measure the parameter $x(q)$ describing the violation of the relation among correlation and response function implied by the fluctuation dissipation theorem.Comment: LaTeX 10 pages + 4 figures (appended as uuencoded compressed tar-file), THP81-9