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Tails serve various functions in both robotics and biology, including expression, grasping, and defense. The vertebrate tails associated with these functions exhibit diverse patterns of vertebral lengths, but the precise mechanisms linking…
A general expression for the elastic potential energy of a helical spring is derived using the basic concepts of elasticity theory and geometry. Both the translational and the rotational displacement of the spring's moving ends are…
We study a model for the motion of a tracer particle inside an active gel, exposing the properties of the van Hove distribution of the particle displacements. Active events of a typical force magnitude give rise to non-Gaussian…
$\alpha$-helices stand out as common and relatively invariant secondary structural elements of proteins. However, $\alpha$-helices are not rigid bodies and their deformations can be significant in protein function ({\it e.g.} coiled coils).…
We study slender, helical elastic rods subject to distributed forces and moments. Focussing on the case when the helix axis remains straight, we employ the method of multiple scales to systematically derive an 'equivalent-rod' theory from…
Hooke's law states that the forces or stresses experienced by an elastic object are proportional to the applied deformations or strains. The number of coefficients of proportionality between stress and strain, i.e., the elastic moduli, is…
Helical molecules change their twist number under the effect of a mechanical load. We study the twist-stretch relation for a set of short DNA molecules modeled by a mesoscopic Hamiltonian. Finite temperature path integral techniques are…
Using dynamic simulations and analytic methods, we study the elastic response of a helical filament subject to uniaxial tension over a wide range of bend and twist persistence length. A low-pitch helix at low temperatures exhibits a…
The twisting deformation of mechanically stretched DNA molecules is studied by a coarse grained Hamiltonian model incorporating the fundamental interactions that stabilize the double helix and accounting for the radial and angular base pair…
This article introduces a novel protein structure alignment method (named TALI) based on the protein backbone torsion angle instead of the more traditional distance matrix. Because the structural alignment of the two proteins is based on…
Many organisms have an elastic skeleton that consists of a closed shell of epithelial cells that is filled with fluid, and can actively regulate both elastic forces in the shell and hydrostatic pressure inside it. In this work we introduce…
Even if a linear system of ordinary differential equations has a globally attracting equilibrium at the origin, small disturbances from the equilibrium may lead to large transient excursions before the system stabilizes. This…
We study the elastic behaviour of a supercoiled DNA molecule. The simplest model is that of a rod like chain, involving two elastic constants, the bending and the twist rigidities. We show that this model is singular and needs a small…
Mechanical stretching of secondary structures is studied through molecular dynamics simulations of a Go-like model. Force vs. displacement curves are studied as a function of the stiffness and velocity of the pulling device. The succession…
In this study we evaluate, at full atomic detail, the folding processes of two small helical proteins, the B domain of protein A and the Villin headpiece. Folding kinetics are studied by performing a large number of ab initio Monte Carlo…
Networks of elastic fibers are ubiquitous in biological systems and often provide mechanical stability to cells and tissues. Fiber reinforced materials are also common in technology. An important characteristic of such materials is their…
We study the transient dynamics of a viscous liquid contained in a narrow gap between a rigid surface and a parallel elastic plate. The elastic plate is deformed due to an externally applied time-varying pressure-field. We model the…
A new strain energy function for the hyperelastic modelling of ligaments and tendons whose fascicles have a helical arrangement of fibrils is derived. The stress-strain response of a single fascicle whose fibrils exhibit varying levels of…
Relativistic particle production often requires the use of Tsallis statistics to account for the apparently power-like behavior of transverse momenta observed in the data even at a few GeV/c. In such an approach this behavior is attributed…
We propose an elasticity theory for one and two dimensional arrays of globular proteins for which the free energy is affected by relative position and relative rotation between neighboring molecules. The kinematics of such assemblies is…