Related papers: Actively stressed marginal networks
Many biological materials consist of sparse networks of disordered fibres, embedded in a soft elastic matrix. The interplay between rigid and soft elements in such composite networks leads to mechanical properties that can go far beyond the…
Disordered fiber networks exhibit a floppy to rigid mechanical phase transition as a function of connectivity. Sub-isostatically connected networks can undergo this transition via straining. Critical exponents governing this transition have…
Marginally stable systems exhibit rich critical mechanical behavior. Such isostatic assemblies can be driven out of equilibrium by internal activity, but it remains unclear how the isostatic and critical nature of such systems affects their…
We develop a continuum theory for equilibrium elasticity of a network of crosslinked semiflexible filaments, spanning the full range between flexible entropy-driven chains to stiff athermal rods. We choose the 3-chain constitutive model…
The motility of a cell can be triggered or inhibited not only by an applied force but also by a mechanically neutral force couple. This type of loading, represented by an applied stress and commonly interpreted as either squeezing or…
We prove that complex networks of interactions have the capacity to regulate and buffer unpredictable fluctuations in production events. We show that non-bursty network-driven activation dynamics can effectively regulate the level of…
We have studied the elastic response of actin networks with both compliant and rigid crosslinks by modeling molecular motors as force dipoles. Our finite element simulations show that for compliant crosslinkers such as filamin A, the…
In cells, cytoskeletal filament networks are responsible for cell movement, growth, and division. Filaments in the cytoskeleton are driven and organized by crosslinking molecular motors. In reconstituted cytoskeletal systems, motor activity…
Disordered spring networks are a useful paradigm to examine macroscopic mechanical properties of amorphous materials. Here, we study the elastic behavior of under-constrained spring networks, i.e.\ networks with more degrees of freedom than…
Contractile forces are essential for many developmental processes involving cell shape change and tissue deformation. Recent experiments on reconstituted actomyosin networks, the major component of the contractile machinery, have shown that…
We consider the influence of local noise on a generalized network of populations having positive and negative feedbacks. The population dynamics at the nodes is nonlinear, typically chaotic, and allows cessation of activity if the…
We study the effect of the spatial distribution of active force dipoles on the folding pathways and mechanical stability of rigid-elastic networks using Langevin dynamics simulations. While it has been shown in Majumdar et al., J. Chem.…
Many active materials and biological systems are driven far from equilibrium by embedded agents that spontaneously generate forces and distort the surrounding material. Probing and characterizing these athermal fluctuations is essential for…
The importance of mesoscale fluctuations in flowing amorphous materials is widely accepted, without a clear understanding of their role. We propose a mean-field elastoplastic model that admits both stress and strain-rate fluctuations, and…
The cytoskeleton protein actin assembles into large bundles when supporting stresses in the cell, but grows into a fine branched network to induce cell motion. Such self-organization processes are studied in artificial networks of…
The non-linear stress-strain relation for crosslinked polymer networks is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Previously we demonstrated the importance of trapped entanglements in determining the elastic and relaxational…
Previous research has shown a clear relationship between sleep and memory, examining the impact of sleep deprivation on key cognitive processes over very short durations or in special populations. Here, we show, in a longitudinal 16 week…
We present a revised theoretical study of the affine assumption applied to semiflexible networks. Drawing on simple models of semiflexible worm-like chains we derive an expression for the probability distribution of crosslink separations…
We study a model of an active gel of cross-linked semiflexible filaments with additional active linkers such as myosin II clusters. We show that the coupling of the elasticity of the semiflexible filaments to the mechanical properties of…
We apply a recently developed model of cytoskeletal force generation to study a cell intrinsic contractility, as well as its response to external loading. The model is based on a non-equilibrium thermodynamic treatment of the…