Table 1.

Abbreviations used

a	Membrane thickness.
ae	Membrane electrical thickness.
A	Area of the vesicle.
Ap	Permeabilized area.
C	Constant depending on R, a, and the various conductivities of the problem.
DiIC18	1,1′-dioctadecyl-3,3,3′,3′-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate.
DOPC	1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine.
EggPC	L-α-Phosphatidylcholine (egg, chicken).
E	Magnitude of the applied electric field.
l	Length of the hydrocarbon chain.
Nc	Number of pulses needed to enter the shrinking regime.
p	Dipole moment of the PC headgroup.
PR	Preshrinking regime.
q	Probability that one pulse induces a transition from the pre-shrinking to the shrinking regime.
Rc	Critical radius.
λ	Fraction of the permeabilized area lost per pulse.
Rhodamine PE	L-α-Phosphatidylethanolamine-n-(Egg Lissamine Rhodamine PE).
R(n)	Radius of the vesicle after n pulses.
Wc	Rescaled critical radius, Rc/R(0)
SR	Shrinking regime.
W(n)	Rescaled radius of the vesicle after n pulses, R(n)/R(0)
ΔΨ	Transmembrane voltage.
ΔΨ0	Initial transmembrane voltage induced by the first pulse at the poles of the liposomes.
ΔΨc	Critical transmembrane voltage n: number of pulses.
θ	Angle on the cell surface with respect to the direction of the applied field.
θc	Critical angle.
Σ0	Initial surface tension.
Σel	Surface tension induced by the electric field.
Σlys	Lysis tension.
ɛm	Membrane dielectric constant.
ρ	Effective radius of the lipid hydrocarbon tail viewed as a cylinder.
μ	Lipid tail hydrophobic free energy per unit of area.