The mechanics of microtubules, cylindrical protein filaments that constitute the cytoskeleton, have been well characterized on long length scales. Here, we investigate the persistence length of short (approximately 0.1 microm) ends of microtubules by measuring the trajectories of kinesin-propelled microtubules under perpendicular electric forces. We relate the measured trajectory curvatures to ...

We investigate a model of cell division in which the length of telomeres within a cell regulates its proliferative potential. At each division, telomeres undergo a systematic length decrease as well as a superimposed fluctuation due to exchange of telomere DNA between the two daughter cells. A cell becomes senescent when one or more of its telomeres become shorter than a critical length. We map...

In recent years, social scientists have increasingly turned to matching as a method for drawing causal inferences from observational data. Matching compares those who receive a treatment to those with similar background attributes who do not receive a treatment. Researchers who use matching frequently tout its ability to reduce bias, particularly when applied to data sets that contain extensive...

This paper explores the behavior of present-biased agents, that is, agents who erroneously anticipate costs future actions compared to their real costs. Specifically, we extend original framework proposed by Akerlof (1991) for studying various aspects human related time-inconsistent planning, including procrastination, and abandonment, as well elegant graph-theoretic model encapsulating this re...