A new theoretical approach is developed that links the allometry of energy partitioning among differently-sized organisms in ecological community to community stability. The magnitude of fluctuations of plant biomass introduced by plant-feeding heterotrophs is shown to grow rapidly with increasing body size. To keep these fluctuations at a low level compatible with ecosystem stability, the shar...

We propose a mechanism for the stabilization/destabilization of cell membranes by multivalent ions with an emphasis on its implications for the division and fusion of cells. We find that multivalent cations preferentially adsorbed onto a membrane dramatically changes the membrane stability. They not only reduce the surface charge density of the membrane but also induce a repulsive barrier to po...

Growing microtubules are protected from depolymerization by the presence of a GTP or GDP/Pi cap. End-binding proteins of the EB1 family bind to the stabilizing cap, allowing monitoring of its size in real time. The cap size has been shown to correlate with instantaneous microtubule stability. Here we have quantitatively characterized the properties of cap size fluctuations during steady-state g...

We propose a mechanism for the stabilization and destabilization of cell membranes by multivalent ions with an emphasis on its implications for the division and fusion of cells. We find that multivalent cations preferentially adsorbed onto a membrane dramatically change the membrane stability. They not only reduce the surface charge density of the membrane but also induce a barrier to pore grow...

The development of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes is outlined with a review of recent work and a discussion of the application of these concepts to physicochemical, biological and hydrodynamic phenomena. The extension of local thermodynamics to include a theory of stability and of fluctuations receives attention. The author concludes with remarks on the stability properties of che...

The shape fluctuations and the stability of polymerized vesicles are investigated within the framework of shell theory. The intrinsic curvature of the vesicle leads to an enhanced coupling betwecn bending and stretching modes which acts to suppress the shape fluctuations on large scales. This effect is explicitly calculated for a cylindrical shape of the vesicle. For a cylinder

We review an important stability approach to quantization by Rusov and Vlasenko and indicate possible comparison of fluctuations to standard situations involving a quantum potential.

Near-ground artificial cloud releases in the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer were investigated experimentally by Lidar measurement techniques. Simple scaling relations between the average concentration and the lowest order moments are suggested by simple analytical models, and the experimental results are tested against these hypotheses. We find strong evidence for a simple scaling of the ...