title: Singular perturbation theory applied to Markov models for DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation.
abstract: The induction of DNA double strand breaks by ionizing radiation, and enzymatic double strand break repair or misrepair, are modeled as continuous time Markov chains. Systems of partial differential equations for appropriate probability generating functions are solved by singular perturbation theory with scaling. The zero-th order singular perturbation result coincides with a model recently suggested in a biological literature. Higher order terms correct for various effects including "overkill". The results are applicable to both sparsely ionizing and densely ionizing radiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale 62901.
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sachs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004260:DNA Repair; D004798:Enzymes; D008390:Markov Chains; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes; D004247:DNA