Atomistic simulations of liquid–liquid coexistence in confinement: comparison of thermodynamics and kinetics with bulk

We review a few simulation methods and results related to the structure and non-equilibrium dynamics in the coexistence region of immiscible symmetric binary fluids, in bulk as well as under confinement, with special emphasis on the latter. Monte Carlo methods to estimate interfacial tensions for flat and curved interfaces have been discussed. The latter, combined with a thermodynamic integration technique, provides contact angles for coexisting fluids attached to the wall. For such three-phase coexistence, results for the line tension are also presented. For the kinetics of phase separation, various mechanisms and corresponding theoretical expectations have been discussed. A comparative picture between the domain growth in bulk and confinement (including thin-film and semi-infinite geometry) has been presented from molecular dynamics simulations. Applications of finite-size scaling technique have been discussed in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium contexts.     

Competition limits adaptation and productivity in a photosynthetic alga at elevated CO2

When competitive exclusion between lineages and genetic adaptation within lineages occur on the same timescale, the two processes have the potential to interact. I use experimental microbial evolution where strains of a photosynthetic microbe that differ in their physiological response to CO₂ enrichment are grown either alone or in communities for hundreds of generations under CO₂ enrichment. After about 300 generations of growth, strains that experienced competition while adapting to environmental change are both less productive and less fit than corresponding strains that adapted to that same environmental change in the absence of competitors. In addition, I find that excluding competitors not only limits that strain''s adaptive response to abiotic change, but also decreases community productivity; I quantify this effect using the Price equation. Finally, these data allow me to empirically test the common hypothesis that phytoplankton that are most able to take advantage of carbon enrichment in single-strain populations over the short term will increase in frequency within multi-strain communities over longer timescales.     

Statistical Inference in a Two-Compartment Model for Hematopoiesis

We present a method for parameter estimation in a two-compartment hidden Markov model of the first two stages of hematopoiesis. Hematopoiesis is the specialization of stem cells into mature blood cells. As stem cells are not distinguishable in bone marrow, little is known about their behavior, although it is known that they have the ability to self-renew or to differentiate to more specialized (progenitor) cells. We observe progenitor cells in samples of bone marrow taken from hybrid cats whose cells contain a natural binary marker. With data consisting of the changing proportions of this binary marker over time from several cats, estimates for stem cell self-renewal and differentiation parameters are obtained using an estimating equations approach.     

Reconciling empirical interactions and species coexistence

Coexistence in ecological communities is governed largely by the nature and intensity of species interactions. Countless studies have proposed methods to infer these interactions from empirical data, yet models parameterised using such data often fail to recover observed coexistence patterns. Here, we propose a method to reconcile empirical parameterisations of community dynamics with species‐abundance data, ensuring that the predicted equilibrium is consistent with the observed abundance distribution. To illustrate the approach, we explore two case studies: an experimental freshwater algal community and a long‐term time series of displacement in an intertidal community. We demonstrate how our method helps recover observed coexistence patterns, capture the core dynamics of the system, and, in the latter case, predict the impacts of experimental extinctions. Collectively, these results demonstrate an intuitive approach for reconciling observed and empirical data, improving our ability to explore the links between species interactions and coexistence in natural systems.     

红壤丘陵区林下灌木生物量估算模型的建立及其应用

以中国科学院千烟洲生态试验站林下常见的16种物种作为研究对象,构建了单一物种以植冠面积(Ac)为变量的二次方程和以植冠投影体积(Vc)为变量的乘幂方程来估算物种生物量,以及16种物种的混合模型来估算其生物量,并将最佳生物量估算模型应用于不同森林内灌木层生物量的估计.不同森林的灌木层生物量组成存在较大差异.以物种单一模型计算的落叶阔叶林、次生林、人工针叶林灌木层的生物量分别为4773、3175和733kg.hm-2;以物种混合模型估算的结果略低于单一模型,分别为3946、2772和840kg.hm-2.混合模型在未能对所有物种建立单一模型的情况下估算灌木层生物量时,具有简便、实用性的特点.     

反应扩散系统的渐近性态

考虑Lotka-Volterra反应扩散系统,给出了条件,保证其解的渐近性态与对应的常微系统相同。     

激光与生物组织相互作用：光子迁移与生物传热理论

激光热疗中,激光与生物组织相互作用研究主要包含两方面：光子在生物组织中的迁移规律,以及光生扫热在生物组织在的传导。对前者的描述主要为,基于传输理论的解析法和Ｍｏｎｔｅ￣Ｃａｒｌｏ模拟,生物组织中光子迁移规律的研究能定量描述组织中的光分布,并进一步获得生物组织中的热分布;考虑到了生物组织特性,所建立了生物组织中温度场分布及变化规律。光子迁移与生物传热理论是研究激光热序不可分割的传热模型,全面描述了生     

Interactions Between Pattern Formation and Domain Growth

In this paper we develop a theoretical framework for investigating pattern formation in biological systems for which the tissue on which the spatial pattern resides is growing at a rate which is itself regulated by the diffusible chemicals that establish the spatial pattern. We present numerical simulations for two cases of interest, namely exponential domain growth and chemically controlled growth. Our analysis reveals that for domains undergoing rapid exponential growth dilution effects associated with domain growth influence both the spatial patterns that emerge and the concentration of chemicals present in the domain. In the latter case, there is complex interplay between the effects of the chemicals on the domain size and the influence of the domain size on the formation of patterns. The nature of these interactions is revealed by a weakly nonlinear analysis of the full system. This yields a pair of nonlinear equations for the amplitude of the spatial pattern and the domain size. The domain is found to grow (or shrink) at a rate that depends quadratically on the pattern amplitude, the particular functional forms used to model the local tissue growth rate and the kinetics of the two diffusible species dictating the resulting behaviour.