Synaptic size distributions in the Contact Process model.

<p><b>(A)</b> Illustration of the Contact Process: Binding is cooperative with a rate that increases with the fraction of occupied neighboring sites (representing interactions with nearby bound molecules) whereas the unbinding rate is a constant, β, insensitive to the numbers of occupied neighboring sites. Binding is also affected by a small, constant and non-cooperative component (<i>α</i>) representing weak, non-specific binding to the matrix. <b>(B)</b> Synaptic size distributions for different λ_on/β ratios. All distributions were determined numerically through simulations (3500 synapses, 1500 time steps; see <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005668#sec013" target="_blank">Methods</a> for further details). Note the semi-logarithmic scale. <b>(C)</b> Same distributions as in (B) after scaling by subtracting the mean and dividing by the standard deviation. See <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005668#sec013" target="_blank">Methods</a> for the rest of the simulation parameters used here.