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An optical resonator-called a photonic atoll (PA)-is presented and investigated theoretically, which consists of microstructures arranged periodically to make a closed chain loop and permits a photon trapped there to stay in it for an amazingly long time. The systematic investigation for a variety of elliptical PAs reveals that the symmetric (or circular) resonator enables us to attain the maximum lifetime. This structural modification exhibits intriguing variations of eigen-modes, as given below. The optical eigen-modes in the PAs-their degeneracy gets lifted by this deformation-show the splitting widths that strongly depend on the mode position in the photonic band. Moreover, those modes split near the bandedge display a striking anisotropy of excitations. These phenomena should be discussed taking into account the quasi-one-dimensionality of the structure as well as considering them from the group-theoretic standpoint. We have thus clarified the eigen-modes metamorphoses caused by the modification of the PA structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein-nucleic acid complexes are important for many cellular processes including the most essential functions such as transcription and translation. For many protein-nucleic acid complexes, flexibility of both macromolecules has been shown to be critical for specificity and/or function. The flexibility-rigidity index (FRI) has been proposed as an accurate and efficient approach for protein flexibility analysis. In this article, we introduce FRI for the flexibility analysis of protein-nucleic acid complexes. We demonstrate that a multiscale strategy, which incorporates multiple kernels to capture various length scales in biomolecular collective motions, is able to significantly improve the state of art in the flexibility analysis of protein-nucleic acid complexes. We take the advantage of the high accuracy and O( N) computational complexity of our multiscale FRI method to investigate the flexibility of ribosomal subunits, which are difficult to analyze by alternative approaches. An anisotropic FRI approach, which involves localized Hessian matrices, is utilized to study the translocation dynamics in an RNA polymerase. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has recently become possible to measure the anisotropic distribution of interfaces in polycrystals and composites. Because classical theories for grain growth and coarsening assume isotropic interface properties, they are incapable of explaining how these distributions arise. The purpose of this paper is to review the results of recent experiments, simulations, and theories that document the effects of anisotropy on the capillarity-driven evolution of granular systems. The results suggest that meaningful predictions of evolving microstructural characteristics can be made using models that incorporate the anisotropy of the interfacial energy and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]